After answering the call of God to be a pastor as a teenager, Pastor Matthew Rowley attended Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC to train for the ministry. While there, Pastor Rowley met his wife Jen and were married the summer after graduation in 2004.

Recognizing the importance of carefully and accurately handling the Word of God, Pastor Rowley spent the next four years attending Bob Jones Jr. Memorial Seminary and graduated with his Masters of Divinity degree in May of 2008.

Toward the end of his graduate studies, the Lord gave the Rowley's a burden for planting a new church in East Arlington on the eastern side of Jacksonville between the St. John's river and the beach.