The interesting twists and turns, physically and spiritually, that brought a Texan to Northwest Ohio
could be fodder for a television movie of the week.
Use whatever cliché you wish, but Kyle Burkholder, a Texas-born-and-raised Catholic, has assumed an ideal
role as pastor at Covenant Church in Bowling Green.
The man who has never shoveled snow in his life is now deeply immersed in his goal to help all the people
here to serve others.
“This is a beautiful, giving and generous community. It is missional without an agenda,” he said of the
church and Bowling Green.
After more than a year without a senior pastor, Burkholder started at Covenant in July and both he and
the elders who lead the church are all very satisfied and looking forward to even better times ahead.

“We had high expectations and he has met or exceeded all those expectations,” Craig Dixon, treasurer and
one of four church elders, said of Burkholder.
While getting his degree in history at the University of Texas at Austin, Burkholder said he rebelled in
many ways including faith-wise. He developed a friendship with a pastor at Gracepoint Church in Austin.
After listening to one particular service, he told the pastor, “I don’t know what you talked about, but
all I can hear is Africa.”
The continent was not even remotely connected to the topic of that service, and the two decided
Burkholder was being called to mission work.
Given a choice of service to  remote Kenya or immersion into a poor city parish in Johannesburg, South
Africa, Burkholder chose the latter and he packed all of his possessions into a used military duffel
bag. The airline flight took 50-60 hours as a convoluted flight path took him to numerous cities across
the United States and three continents.
The path for Burkholder’s life and faith during his service there transformed and focused him on a more
direct path.
“I fell in love with South Africa,” he said. “For the first time in my life I was truly discipled. I was
shown day to day, the true meaning of leading a Christian life.”
He described it as if the “shades were slowly being drawn up to allow me to see.”
Speaking about his immersion into the culture with Pastor Willie Dengler, Burkholder said, “This man took
me under his wing and brought me into his world. He was generous to show me how to be a disciple and
enter into it fully.”
They fed poor children and visited sick people and prisoners. “It was a very biblical thing,” he
recalled.
A return to Austin led him to meet his wife, Stefani, back at Gracepoint. She was also active with the
church and they together returned to South Africa in 2007 to work with Dengler.
“That trip solidified in me what I was to be doing: generationally-based ministry in a community.”
Upon his return, Burkholder was growing, and so was Gracepoint — into a mega church with three campuses.
He served various roles in the church, growing to be a leader as associate pastor and becoming the
teaching pastor in 2014. He was baptized there; his children were dedicated there. It was all ideal.
“I loved the church, it was a great church and great people,” Burkholder said. “Until … I felt a real
release from that. Something was not right — there was a restlessness.”
He said it meant there was something else he needed to do.
“My wife found this job listing online and sent it to me” Burkholder said. “She told me it looks like you
wrote that for yourself.”
That job listing was for Covenant Church. Without comment he emailed the post to a trusted friend who
shared the same view — the Bowling Green church was ideal for Burkholder and vice versa.
He had not been actively seeking a new position and he sent out only one resume of his credentials. That
one went to Covenant.
Covenant received well over 100 applicants from across the country.
“We advertised on a number of postings. The search committee, a mix of different members, was overseen by
an elder and this committee got the list down to the 30s,” Dixon said.
Further screening reduced the field again, and phone interviews with the top seven trimmed it to three.
The plan was to bring in the top candidates to meet with the congregation, and all three agreed to
visit.
Burkholder was the first candidate, and it went well with three days of meetings.
“At the end of that we felt he was the right guy,” Dixon said.
They had agreed to bring in all three, and after praying about their dilemma, they decided to honor the
plan.
“We had been scratching our heads about that, but we were going to move ahead. Within a week of Kyle’s
visit, both of the other candidates called and said they had been praying about it and they both were
out,” Dixon said.
“It was meant to be, Burkholder said. “I sent one resume. Covenant ended with one candidate. In every way
it just seemed ordained.”
Dixon added, “We hired Kyle but we got more. We got the whole family and the family package is the right
fit for our congregation.
Stefani Burkholder has become active in assisting with the worship. The couple has two daughters, Bella,
8, and Brixton, 4.
Since arriving, Burkholder said, “I found it to be everything I was yearning for in my heart and soul.”

He loves the people and the congregation and has found what drew him to the church to be one of its
strengths.
“This church doesn’t care about promoting its own name as much as the community,” he said.
He noted some of the community efforts that either had their start at the church or were assisted by it,
such as Global Connections and the Daughter Project.
“None of them have the Covenant name. There is a bigger purpose than making itself bigger,” he said.
“It’s been everything I wanted. Our kids love it here. We love the community and the atmosphere. There
is so much of what I saw with Willie Dengler in Johannesburg I can see us having here. I get to serve a
people. At Gracepoint I was more of a public speaker, not a pastor. Here I can serve the people.”
Speaking of Dengler, he said, “He touched people in profound and meaningful ways. That’s what I hope for
in our lives.”
Dixon praised the new pastor, calling him both relevant and challenging.
“He’s endeared himself with his open style. He’s very personable, engaging, and his sermons have been
outstanding.”
Burkholder said the community is vibrant and growing, and “if anyone gives me credit, they are lying to
you. We are walking into a beautiful thing.”
Burkholder is currently completing his seminary education and later this month will have his master’s
degree in biblical studies from Grace School of Theology in Woodland, Texas.