From 28 years as a practicing pagan to the pulpit — Justin McLane's story is not a polished testimony. It is a hard-won account of what happens when truth finally catches up with a man who spent decades running from it.
Justin McLane is a combat veteran, lead pastor, author, and keynote speaker whose ministry is built on a single, urgent conviction: the Church must stop offering a watered-down Gospel to a world that is starving for the real thing.
He was raised in a home that actively opposed Christianity. His mother was involved in online communities targeting Christian leaders, and the faith he grew up hearing about was presented as something to be mocked, not considered. For nearly three decades, Justin searched for meaning through every path that promised it — from Wicca to Druidism — and found only a deepening emptiness.
"I know what the world sees when it looks at the Church. I spent 28 years on the outside looking in, and I was not impressed. That is exactly why I am committed to closing the gap between the cultural label of 'Christian' and the transformative life of a follower of the Way."
As a veteran of two tours in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, Justin carries a soldier's understanding of what it costs to hold a line. That experience shaped his pastoral instincts. He knows the weight of fear, the particular loneliness of men who have seen too much, and the way trauma can calcify into bitterness when it goes unaddressed. His ministry is built for people who have been hardened by the world and are not sure faith has anything real to offer them.
Everything changed in August 2022 when Justin encountered Jesus Christ. What began as resistance became surrender. The transformation was total — and costly. His mother stopped speaking to him after his conversion. His father distanced himself after Justin voted for President Trump. The faith that gave him everything required him to lay down the relationships he had built his identity around.
In September 2023, he founded The New Hope Fellowship in Eastern Tennessee. His February 2026 book, God Is Personal: Finding the Father in a Crowded World, extends that pastoral work into print — a direct challenge to the performance culture and digital noise that keep people at arm's length from an authentic relationship with God.
Justin also serves as the Chief Operating Officer of America's Black Robe Regiment, a national organization calling the Church back to its historic role in civic and moral life. He is a state-certified firearms instructor in Tennessee, a lifetime member of the Second Amendment Foundation, and a sought-after speaker at veterans' gatherings, Second Amendment conferences, church summits, and conservative civic events.
Raised in an anti-Christian household. Spent nearly three decades exploring paganism, Wicca, and Druidism in search of meaning that never came.
Two deployments to Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. The weight of combat, loss, and survival forged a heart for people who carry wounds the world cannot see.
An encounter with Jesus Christ that cost him his closest family relationships and gave him a mission: helping others find the personal God he had spent decades avoiding.
Founded The New Hope Fellowship in Eastern Tennessee. Published God Is Personal in 2026. Serves as COO of America's Black Robe Regiment. Speaking nationally. Created an online community.
Cultivating intimacy with God as the antidote to digital distraction, performance culture, and spiritual striving. Based on God Is Personal, this keynote challenges audiences to stop managing their faith and start living it.
Standing firm under cultural and familial pressure without losing your identity. Justin draws on his own story of conversion, family fracture, and the cost of holding convictions in a world that demands conformity.
Leadership lessons from combat applied to family, community, and civic life. Blending military experience with pastoral wisdom, Justin speaks to the particular challenges facing veterans, fathers, and men in leadership.
A call for the Church to reclaim its historical role in civic life. Emphasizing moral clarity, principled engagement, and the need for a patriotism grounded in something more durable than politics.
Copyright © 2026 Justin McLane - All Rights Reserved.
Combat Veteran · Lead Pastor · Author · Speaker
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