“My grandfather is my hero of the faith. Seeing the way that he loved my grandmother and cared for her, I mean, that’s love. That’s leading your family well. That’s stewarding what the Lord’s given you,” says Kyle Marcus, minister of adult discipleship and membership at First Baptist Church in Hurst, Texas.
Kyle’s grandfather, Herb, went from being “the pastor who didn’t know how to boil water” to the caretaker who did everything as his wife’s health declined due to Alzheimer’s disease. Inspired by his grandfather’s faithful stewardship, Kyle strives to be accountable in his own life, including his personal health.
At the SBC annual meeting in Dallas in June 2025, Kyle initially avoided the GuideStone wellness booth, aware that his health was not where it should be. He hesitated to face accountability but was encouraged by his friend from church, Adam Kegg, a registered nurse at GuideStone who works at the wellness booth.
When his first blood pressure reading was high, Adam suggested that he wait a few minutes and test again. A second high result captured Kyle’s attention.
“Honestly, if it wasn’t for Adam, I probably wouldn’t have done the wellness check. But because in that moment I was actually seeing numbers, I was like, ‘Something has to change.’”
Kyle notes that discussions about stewardship in church often focus on finances and service, rarely touching on physical health. Meanwhile, it’s common to hear about “weight loss journeys” or “health journeys” outside of church. Kyle’s perspective is that his health is a “stewardship journey” — a call to obedience in caring for what the Lord has provided, including his physical body.
“Part of being a good leader, a good shepherd, a good husband and a good father is taking care of yourself. It’s like when you’re on an airplane: First, put your oxygen mask on before you put the oxygen mask on the person next to you,” Kyle explains.
After losing about 50 pounds in his early twenties, Kyle later regained weight during pivotal life events, including college, marriage, parenthood and the COVID pandemic. Reflecting on this, he says, “I look at pictures, and I look at the scale, and I’m like, that’s me. I was not stewarding what the Lord gave me. It’s not just that he gave me a calling. He gave me a wife, he gave me kids and he gave me a body,” says Kyle. “I have to steward everything.”
Following the wake-up call at the SBC meeting, Kyle committed to change, losing nearly 40 pounds in six months and continuing his progress.
Today, Kyle has more energy and is better able to fulfill his roles as husband, father, doctoral student and minister.
Kyle’s commitment to steward what the Lord has given him has been shaped by life circumstances and challenges.
He was placed for adoption by his biological mother, and he’s thankful for the choice she made. After his adoptive parents divorced when he was two, he lost his father at age nine. As an only child to a single parent, they moved often, which meant changing schools frequently.
Amid the continual change, church was an anchor. No matter where they lived, they attended church. His grandfather was a pastor, and his uncle was a music minister. As a child, Kyle understood that he needed Jesus as his Savior. But he didn’t fully understand Lordship and hadn’t fully surrendered everything to the Lord.
As a young adult, Kyle experienced a period of wandering from God. “I had about a five-year stretch, college and a year after college, where I just wasn’t walking with the Lord. I was chasing relationships and money and status and everything that comes with it. At about 22 years old at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, I just realized I need to go all in for the Lord, and I need to stop filling this hole in my heart with things that aren’t going to satisfy me.”
Kyle got plugged in at church and met regularly with his pastor over the next two years. After feeling a sense of tension about what he was called to do with his life, he left a high-paying secular job to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary®, where he earned a Master of Arts in Christian Education with an emphasis in student ministry. “I’ve been saying yes to the Lord ever since.”
Kyle’s submission to ministry was especially meaningful to his grandfather. “When I called him to tell him that I was quitting my job and going to Southwestern, he just told me how proud he was of me.”
In life’s trials, Kyle finds perspective in Psalm 63:3 (ESV):
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
After his radical life change at age 22, he began filling in the blanks with this verse.
Your steadfast love is better than status. It’s better than money. It’s better than anything.
During the most difficult times, the verse prompted obedience over feelings.
Kyle recalls a recent memory — moving himself and his wife, Katie, who was pregnant at the time, to Hurst, Texas, in 2023. With keys in hand and a moving truck ready to unload at their new home, they received a phone call with distressing news. They couldn’t move into the house.
“I had actually wired all of the money not to the title company, but to a scammer.”
He didn’t want to face people at church the next Sunday. He continues, “People knew we were finally closing after two months. We had been couch surfing. We had been living in people’s extra bedrooms. We didn’t want to have to answer the questions. But because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. And I don’t go to church for me; I go to church to worship him.”
Thankfully, the money was recovered a month later. However, Kyle makes it clear that their posture toward the Lord would be the same in either outcome: “He would have been good whether we got the money back or we didn’t get the money back because ‘Your steadfast love is better than life’ when you lose somebody, when you lose a job or when you wire almost everything you have to a scammer.”
Kyle finds accountability for both his spiritual life and physical health in a men’s small group at his church. “In that [setting], I am church member Kyle. I’m not a minister. I’m just a brother in Christ, a follower of Jesus, like the men that I meet with every Tuesday night.” Kyle shares his daily workout stats with a friend from the small group.
“We can have fake accountability. You can be in accountability groups that are meaningless,” explains Kyle. “The only real accountability happens when you are willing to be held accountable.”
When asked what he would say to someone delaying a yearly preventive care visit, Kyle speaks with conviction: “We have to be obedient to the furthest place of obedience. You can’t be as obedient as possible, as faithful as possible or as good a steward as possible if you’re unwilling to care for yourself. If you are stewarding the call that the Lord has placed on your life to the best of your ability, and you’ll put away any shame for any hesitation, and you’ll make the time, and you’ll make the effort.”
Kyle continues to follow his grandfather’s example of stewardship, not only in health but also in finances. He began saving for retirement early, heeding his grandfather’s advice. He now sees Herb reaping the benefits of long-term planning and encourages younger ministers to start early and take advantage of employer-matching contributions.
Today, Kyle carries on his grandfather’s legacy in ministry and cherishes each conversation he has with him at age 93. As a husband to Katie and father to daughters Addison and Sutton, he also leads his family to steward their health.
Like Kyle, GuideStone wants to help you enhance your financial security and resilience in your stewardship journey. For valuable health and wellness resources relevant to all life stages, visit GuideStone.org/MemberJourney.
As a pastor, advocating for fair compensation and benefits can be daunting. That’s why GuideStone® created A Pastor’s Guide: How to Advocate for Salary and Benefits to Your Church Committee. It’s our prayer that this resource provides encouragement and practical tools so that you can:
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