Jonathan and Laurie’s Story

Looking from the outside in, you might think Jonathan and Laurie had a picture-perfect life. College sweethearts who married young, they had five precious children and attended church together each Sunday. But on the inside, they were quietly drowning. They would both admit they had no idea what they were signing up for in marriage and parenting; that the tax of life on top of years of pain and wounding each other began to take its toll. Instead of leaning into Jesus and community with that pain, they were slowly isolating from each other—Laurie turning inward and Jonathan turning increasingly towards distractions of the world.

In this place, they first began attending Passion City Church in 2013 after an invitation from their friends Jake and Emily. From the beginning, it was a respite, providing a nurturing environment for their young kids and a place for Laurie and Jonathan to serve as they joined the 22 Community Door Holder team. Yet, the root issues of pain persisted unaddressed. At some point in 2016, Pastor Louie preached a sermon on marriage, and Laurie was so moved by it that she wrote him a letter letting him know their marriage was barely surviving and that his words had impacted her deeply. Laurie will never forget receiving a note of encouragement back from Pastor Louie; in that season, it was one of the small, intentional reminders that God was saying, “I see you and your family.”

Shortly thereafter, the wheels began to fall off. Jonathan stopped coming to church with his family, and in December of that year, he confessed to having an affair. In a way, Laurie was relieved: it explained much of his distance and the deterioration of the marriage, and gave her a reason to leave him. Around Christmas, he moved out, and by May, they were divorced.

Laurie

Broken and looking for a new start, Laurie took herself and five young kids to Cumberland, which had just started regularly meeting at North Atlanta High School. They were instantly met with kindness, compassion, and genuine care. Each of her children had leaders in bloom and Passion Kids who showed up and poured into their lives right when they needed it most. At this point, the student ministry hadn’t even started at Cumberland, so her sixth-grade daughter Elise started to serve in bloom. This space became a lifeline for her—a steady place of community and strength.

Overwhelmed as a single mother of five, Laurie knew she had to widen the circle, and countless individuals came alongside her and the kids. Passion Kids and Student leaders spent hours inside and outside of church, providing them with a safe space to not only grow up as kids but to feel the pain of living in a divorced home. This support gave her the ability to gain little moments of margin that she so desperately needed to keep putting one foot in front of another and slowly heal from the pain of marriage and divorce. In 2018, Laurie began to serve, and as she shared the broken parts of her story, God continued to meet her through the love and support of those in our House.

As time went by, God was quietly at work.

Jonathan

By 2019, seeing the increasing collateral damage of his choices in his kids’ lives, Jonathan was reaching a place of desperation and realizing that healing had to start within his own heart. God began slowly resurrecting a desire for life—a winding road that ultimately led him to attend JH Ranch with his daughter Elise, hoping to spend more time together. On the very first night, the altar call invited people to surrender. Weeping tears of sorrow and repentance, Jonathan felt a sense of complete peace—the peace of ‘being home’ for the first time in 20 years. On the last night, he felt God say, “If you’ll radically surrender, I’ll do things you could never imagine.”

Leaving the ranch, Jonathan told Elise he wanted to draw closer to his family. The very next day, Elise sent Jonathan the link to a house that had gone on sale down the street from the family. This began one invitation after another for Jonathan to learn what surrender practically looks like. Only a few months later, the pandemic hit, creating intentional moments every day for them to connect and giving Jonathan ways to serve his kids and Laurie. Shortly thereafter, a mentor who is a long-time friend of Passion, challenged Jonathan to go all-in and pursue reconciliation with Laurie.

Though Laurie believed that their only hope for redemption was to be good co-parents, she began to recognize the profound change in him. Those days were not easy, with old frictions resurfacing. But those moments led to the realization that through their own healing journeys, they were able to have healthier conversations. They started slowly unpacking the pain from their marriage, the way they had wounded each 24 other, and how they had each coped in destructive ways. For the first time, they were experiencing not only rupture, but also repair.

On December 30th, 2020, four years and two weeks from the day Jonathan originally confessed to his affair, he shared with Laurie the vision God had given him for the future of their family: a vision of restoration. He invited her to join him in the journey of radical surrender, and by an absolute miracle of forgiveness, humility, hope, and grace, she agreed to give their marriage another try.

In March of 2021, they got remarried. They’d tell you that marriage is still messy and hard work, but they see now that marriage isn’t designed to meet a need; it’s designed to draw us closer to Jesus. It’s an invitation to individual sanctification, and if we keep our eyes fixed on Him (and not on what the other is doing for or to ourselves), we get the joy of cheering each other on to Jesus. In this messiness, the miracle of resurrection and grace can be made real.

Laurie was excited to take Jonathan to Passion City Church Cumberland and share the place that had become so vital to the life of her and the kids. Their Cumberland family rejoiced over all that God had done in their marriage and family, celebrating yet one more way God can move our hearts, lives, and families from death to life.

Now

Four years later, their family continues to set roots more deeply in our House. Specifically for the kids, it has given them a place to heal from the pain and heartache of divorce—to both be “normal kids,” but also to have leaders that have helped them navigate sadness, anger, and anxiety; to ask honest questions; and to understand that Jesus does walk with us through the darkest valley—that it is OK to bring all of ourselves and our messiness to him. This journey of healing and rebuilding trust as a family is ongoing.

As the kids have grappled with the realities of life and faith, our House has provided environments to deepen and live out that faith—from two of them being baptized in Passion Kids to others serving on Parking and bloom teams, and more recently learning what it means to lead worship through the Passion Worship Academy.

In a full-circle moment last year (2024), Elise, who went on to become part of the first graduating class of PCC Cumberland Students, decided to publicly express her faith in baptism on Senior Sunday. As her leader of six years shared Elise’s story, Laurie and Jonathan looked on in tears, overwhelmed by the stunning picture of God’s redemption in their lives and family—that they could all be standing together, living in the promise that He is able to do things that we cannot ask or imagine.

Laurie said, “At every turn, God continues his pursuit of our family, using the body of Christ to bring redemption and healing. As we continue the slow, stumbling work of reconciliation, we are learning to lean in, not out, and cling to the promises found in Psalm 126:

1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.

2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.“