Jim Essian

Husband.

Father.

Pastor.

Jim grew up in Detroit but traveled around with his family as his dad played and managed in professional baseball till he was 16.  Jim’s own professional baseball career started at 18 and brought him to Fort Worth, TX to play for the Fort Worth Cats where he met Heather, the greatest gift God has given him besides Jesus.  They married in 2004 and have two daughters, Harper Grace and Hollis Jane. Heather and Jim’s passion is to see Jesus glorified and lives transformed by the Gospel. After eight years of professional baseball Jim retired and entered vocational ministry.  For two years he was a resident church-planting intern with Cityview Church in North Fort Worth.

Your Heavenly Father is. The problem is that we see the Father through our earthly father. We are all given lenses at some point in our childhood, and we still wear them even as we begin to parent our own children. The lenses gray our understanding of the Father. Who is He? What does He think of me? Does He accept me? Is He proud of me? What does He want from me?

Herein lies the beauty of the gospel: In Christ, our lenses are removed so we can clearly see the Father, and, in Christ, the Father puts on lenses and sees us through His perfect Son!

This means that in the Gospel we can see what the Father is like. God the Father not only exemplifies fatherhood, but He empowers us in the Gospel to father like Him. If we can see the Father, we can image the father to our children.

So what is the Father like?

Let’s remove the lenses and see.

Thank you for taking a look at The Paradox Church. We are about Jesus and His glory and grace being displayed and proclaimed in a city desperately needing both glory and grace. We exist to see lives transformed (our plan) for the good of the city (our posture) and the glory of God (our purpose) through the Gospel of Jesus (our power). We love Fort Worth. We believe the radical grace of an infinitely glorious God can bring about transformation in the lives of Fort Worthians. So we live as a family of disciples on mission.