DYLLAN AVERY-SMITH

My Story

I grew up in a family that never attended church and was under the assumption that "being a good person" would give you salvation.  In high school, I befriended an atheist and decided that I also did not believe in a higher being.  This was my mindset going into college. 

When I arrived at Missouri State, I looked to the world to bring me satisfaction and would try or do anything to give me an escape from reality.  During the second semester of my freshman year, I began to suffer from anxiety and depression.  With nowhere else to turn, I decided to go to a college ministry event with a fraternity brother where I would meet a man named Andrew Barber.  Week after week, he would walk me through the bible, but my heart remained hard.

On March 29, I received news that a close friend of mine had been in a wreck and died at age 19.  I knew that had it been me in the car I would have been guilty before God and been required to bear my own sin for all of eternity.  Through a tragedy, God has softened my heart and, on March 30, 2016, I was adopted and pronounced a son of God.  For 19 years, God watched me reject him, deny him, and blaspheme His name, and through His grace alone I was saved. 

After being heavily involved in my college ministry, I graduated and moved to Memphis, Tennessee to become an Emerging Leader in the Downline Institute.  God has continued to lavish me in his grace and has continued to use sufferings and circumstances to make me more like His Son. 

My Hope For Harvest

My hope for Harvest is that the Body would continually recognize our need for Jesus and, because He loved us so much, we would be driven to become more like Him and invite others to experience His perfection.