Graham Shelby

Meet Graham

I’m a homegrown Dallas native. I never realized just how much city pride I have until attending Texas A&M and meeting (a few) arrogant Houstonians who claimed their city was better. Don’t get me started...

It’s an honor to have parents that "trained me up in the way I should go". Our home wasn’t perfect, but it was full of love, generosity, and I was given every opportunity to know and further my relationship with the Lord. However, it took until junior high for God to invade my heart and take the throne of it. A faithful camp counselor in Branson, MO, whose name I don’t even remember, helped me understand that I, in fact, was NOT a good person, and that my heart was desperately sick, regardless if my hands had not yet publicly displayed that level of depravity. For the first time, I really felt the weight of my sin, and that I wasn’t the best solution. Jesus and the Gospel became sweet to me in a way it never had been, and I remember declaring him not just as a savior of me but the Lord over me. From that point, I was able to experience the freedom from performance-for-acceptance, and live an abundant life of performance-from-acceptance. Because of Jesus, I have found that 1 John 5:3 is true, that "his commandments are not burdensome".

I was a product of Watermark's student ministries in high school and have 'more joy and less scars' because of the community I took part in. As a recipient of that grace, I now as a young adult get to help my peers experience the fullness of God’s design for their lives. I'm convinced more than ever that God’s Word is true, is relevant to 2019, and when we follow Him we will be blessed.