Shane and Julia Mitchell and Chief Petty Officer Mitchell
Off the 30-Meter Platform
Shane Mitchell served in the United States Navy from 1992 to 1998. Then in 1999, God called him to a very different kind of service – the preaching ministry. But Shane was still a “reckless, unsaved human being,” and he refused the calling. He could not see himself as a pastor.
Then something happened. On May 14, 2005, he was gloriously converted! “That’s when I was officially born again!” As a new creature in Christ, Shane encountered God’s call again, and he began his journey to the ministry.
First, he rejoined the Navy. In June of 2006 he began an 18-year stint in which he advanced to Chief Petty Officer, E7. This trip up the ranks would eventually include five years as a suicide prevention coordinator and other leadership roles, allowing him to “provide that spiritual angle that the secular world can’t provide.”
As with many people who find themselves answering a call to ministry while already involved in a secular career, Shane looked around for ministry training offered in a way he could complete while still in the Navy, allowing him both training and experience for the ministry. He would need flexibility to work around a deployment and other unusual schedules and rigorous training.
“When I go swimming,” he laughs, “I usually go into the deep end, and I'm usually the guy that jumps off the 30-meter platform.” When he was ready to begin training for this call to the ministry, he wanted to be learning all he could! “Nazarene Bible College has a very large place in my heart because prices were great, textbooks were easy to get, class format was quite simple to follow. And once I figured out how to do online courses, the journey was quite easy. I had a blast.” Shane started his NBC journey in 2014 and graduated from the Ministry Preparation Program in May 2022.
In the Navy, he found opportunities to offer the peace and joy that cannot be found outside of Jesus to people who were hurting and desperate. He worked with personnel who already knew and trusted him and with strangers who did not have anywhere else to turn, and in each situation he had to rely on the Holy Spirit to direct his actions and words, both as Chief Petty Officer Mitchell and as Pastor Mitchell.
Since Chief Mitchell’s retirement from the Navy in March 2024, he has stepped right into this calling full time. He was installed as pastor of the Vivian Church of the Nazarene in Vivian, Louisiana in April 2024, and the church has been growing into their vision of transformation one person at a time. “We develop personal relationships. We meet tangible needs where we can. We see where we can fit into the community.”
Pastor Mitchell maintains his ties with Nazarene Bible College. He is happy to share how he developed a camaraderie with his fellow students, many of them shared multiple courses over the years he spent training at NBC, and he developed relationships with professors through this time, too. He has even been back to speak in a faculty and staff chapel service, as well.
“The whole point of the story,” he says, “is to say, ‘Hey, here's what the Lord can do. And if he can do it for me, a very hardheaded older guy, he can do it for the younger folks, too. It's well worth the time.’ ”
Pastor Mitchell shares this testimony as a regular donor to NBC at the Presidential Partner level. “I’m on board with NBC…It’s the best experience.”