Soup played baseball through college at Columbia State Community College 1978-1981 and Memphis State University from 1981-83. He was drafted in the 7th round in 1981 and played the Summer of 1983 through the orient with Athletes in Action. He surrendered His life to follow Christ, December 5,1981 at Memphis State University by watching the life of the baseball coach, Coach Bob Kilpatrick.  “I saw Jesus being lived out in the context of the game I loved.” said Soup. Linda surrendered her life to Christ on December 25 of the same year.

Soup was discipled by the late Herb Hodges for over 30 years, where he learned what the process of disciple-making and being discipled looks like. He is currently being discipled by Mr. Harry Smith. Soup understands the responsibility of pastoring. He was a youth pastor and became the senior pastor of the Ardmore Terrace Baptist Church from 1986-1997. He resigned from the local pastorate to expand his shepherding ministry to pastors around the globe. This consists of training and equipping pastors and leaders, while building disciples after the model of Jesus Christ. Linda had been teaching women for over 20 years, but after seeing the model of her husband in disciple-making, she started discipling, building, and training women.

  Soup has traveled outside the USA over 145 times and trained in multiple countries. Linda has traveled with him on over 70 of those trips. Soup founded Eikon Ministries in 1997 where he serves as Executive Director (www.eikonministries.org). Eikon is based in Memphis, TN; in Binghamton, with a mission to change the urban community from the inside out. Binghamton, was known as a drug-infested urban neighborhood with gang-related violence and crime. Soup and Linda’s work there contributed to the changed reputation in that neighborhood and better quality of life for the people that live there.

  Eikon builds leaders who live and are vested in the community. Since 1999, the Eikon staff have become a part of Binghampton by purchasing homes in the neighborhood. They volunteer in schools, serve at the Lester Community Center, and coordinate service projects in the community. They live in the neighborhood to be an audible, visible, and tangible representation of Christ (1 John 1:1). Their strategy is to build relationships where the Gospel of Christ can be clearly presented. They teach and model God’s Word so that Christ-followers can walk in obedience with Him. They accomplish this through large groups, small groups, disciple groups, volunteers, interns, disciple-makers, and maintaining faithful fellowship in the body of Christ.

  Soup and Linda founded the Higher Ground Leadership training camp and program in Branson, MO in 1998. During the summer, Soup and Linda currently serve as directors in the Ministry of Hospitality, working with youth leaders, coaches, mentors, and pastors; at the most prominent and effective youth camp in the United States, Kids Across America (www.kaakamps.org).

     Soup and Linda are impacting their hometown (in Memphis), their country, and the globe, all at the same time, through the power and strategy of making disciples. They believe the Great Commission that Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20 is the strategy for global impact and spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ now and until he comes again.