Florida-Ohio Partnership: “Only God Could Have Written That Story”

While patrolling the streets of Monroe, Ohio, Officer Drew White regularly stopped to make sure the doors of First Baptist Church, now Life Church, were locked.

Frequently the doors were open, so Drew and his sergeant, also a believer, entered the building.

“It was pretty often we would come into that old chapel when it would slow down at night, and we would be able to take a break, and we would just pray," Drew recalled. “We would pray over the church in the city, in our department, and God did that.”

Today, Drew is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Lakeview, Florida. In 2024, he shared this story with Bill Sargent, pastor, Life Church, Monroe, as they became partner churches in the Florida-Ohio partnership between Ohio’s Southwest Region and Florida’s Central Region.
However, serving as a senior pastor in a Florida church and partnering with an Ohio church is a long way from where Drew thought he would be.

Born in Chester, Ohio, Drew graduated from Lakota East High School and spent the first 33 years of his life in southwest Ohio.

“I always wanted to be a police officer, and that was my goal,” he said. “That was my plan, and so when I graduated high school I got an associate’s degree and then enrolled at the academy in Sharonville.”
Drew became a police officer in 2007, was hired full-time by the city of Monroe police department in 2009, and served there until 2018.

“The interesting thing was that towards my last three or four years, God really put the call to preach on my heart, and I ran from it because it wasn’t a part of my plan – it just wasn’t in the cards,” he remembers. “I was a policeman. I’m working the streets. I’m in a city that I love, and I’m close to home.

However, God had a plan to get Drew’s attention and brought him to his knees. He was diagnosed with a blood disease called IHA–autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

He developed jaundice as his body destroyed his red blood cells and endured a year of treatment to no avail.  

“It ultimately led to a surgery where I had to have my spleen removed,” he said.

After surgery, he stopped running. “I made a commitment to him,” he said. “I said, ‘Lord, as soon as I get raised up and you give me health, the very first service I get to I’m going to surrender to the call of ministry.’”

As Drew transitioned from police work to full-time ministry, working nights on patrol in Monroe and attending seminary part-time, God gave him a burden for the officers he worked with.

“God also put on my heart to start a Bible study at our local police department,” he said. “I just felt that most of our department was lost or claimed Christ in name, but there was no fruit. I just knew that whatever way God would use me, I needed to be a shining light.”
The Monroe police station didn’t have room for groups to meet, so Drew contacted First Baptist Church, now Life Church, where he had stopped to pray on nights when the building was unlocked.

“We got permission to use the smaller chapel building, and we started meeting there once a month on Tuesday nights giving this Bible study,” he said. “We did that for a year and God really grew it. We had about 30 people that were attending.”

Eventually, Drew left the Monroe Police Department to serve in ministry full-time, and just a few years later, he accepted the pastorate of Faith Baptist Church, Lakeview, Florida.
As the Florida/Ohio partnership continued to grow, SCBO Southwest Regional Catalyst Reagan Wagoner contacted Bill and asked if he was interested in having someone from Florida preach one Sunday at Life Church.

“I like preachers to come in and preach,” Bill said “I’ll preach three and give one to someone else to share.”

Wagoner told Bill his guest preacher would be a former Monroe police officer.

Bill says he got “Those Holy Ghost goosebumps. You start to get what’s going on.”

According to Bill, he jokingly warned his church before Drew came to speak.

“My wife is a police dispatcher, and I’m an ex-drug dealer, so it’s a weird combination,” he said. “I told our people the Sunday before, if you have a warrant, maybe stay home next Sunday – a cop is coming to share.”

However, Bill felt an instant connection to Drew as they shared a meal during their visit.
“My buddy, Drew, was sitting next to us,” Bill said. "There were no other churches in the room, and they didn’t even put us together at first.”

Since their first meeting, Bill and Drew have stayed in contact through Facebook, developing their partnership. Their churches have a shared Facebook page enabling church members to get to know each other before they meet in person during a pair of reciprocal mission trips this August.

God’s plan to bring them and their churches together has been overwhelming to both Drew and Bill.

“God’s sovereignty is a gift that involves Drew and me coming together,” Bill said. “If I think about when I was in Trenton or Franklin, God was already orchestrating what he was going to in Monroe, Ohio, with me, who thought we were planting somewhere else. He just said, no, no, no, no, no, no, you need to be here. I have you here.”

Drew agrees with Bill.

“Here I am getting to partner our church in Florida with him, but also being able, it was just such an honor, to preach and help a church replant-revitalization work that my ministry started in just years ago. It was only God. Only God could have written that story.”