While growing up in Grove City, Stephen G. Fabyan attended St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church practically every Sunday, but he put his faith in something else entirely.

"I basically worshipped sports, which isn't hard to do in Grove City," Fabyan recalled last week. "I went to church every week, but that was on Sunday morning. The rest of the week, I was something else."

The 1992 Grove City High School graduate played football and was on the swimming team. He was good enough at the former to get offered a partial scholarship to be a placekicker for Purdue, where he hoped to study engineering.

But then things began to go somewhat awry for Fabyan. His father, whom he loved very much, died during Stephen's senior year. Then he failed to get into the engineering program at Purdue. Stephen Fabyan switched gears, enrolling at Butler University in Indianapolis with a goal of studying engineering there for two years, after which he would transfer to Purdue and get to play Big 10 football.

He made some discoveries along the way, chiefly that he was in emotional turmoil over the loss of his father but also about his career objective.

"After a year and a half of intense math, I realized I hated it," Fabyan said.

His father's death resulted in Fabyan beginning to question all of his beliefs, but eventually he got some answers.

From a very authoritative source.

"God showed up in my room," Fabyan said. "I could literally feel his presence."

That visitation, and a subsequent encounter with Jesus in a Butler campus garden, led Fabyan to pledge himself to service of the Lord.

With some different stops and starts along the way, Grove City native Stephen Fabyan has moved on to become what he is today, senior pastor of a street and storefront ministry based in the Continent and the author two books on religious thought, the second of which, "The Tabernacle: The Manifestations of His Glory," which is due out from PublishAmerica shortly.

"Stephen believes and teaches that living a lifestyle submitted to Jesus is the only way to walk in dominion and power on this earth," according to the Frederick, Md., publishing firm. "This book is a book about the Tabernacle of Moses. The Tabernacle of Moses is a replica of the Tabernacle in Heaven, and a prophetic foreshadow of the perfect tabernacle, Jesus. By studying the Tabernacle of Moses we can learn about how God desires us to walk with Him, in the manifestation of His glory."

After his experience in his room and the garden, Fabyan said that he felt directed to switch from Butler not to Purdue but to Wittenberg University to study religion. There he became involved with a nondenominational church on campus. He began attending Bible studies and then did some preaching. He had found his calling.

"I had never felt anything like it in my life," Fabyan said.

That prompted him, he said, to laugh and recall what his mother told him as he headed off to college. She said God had visited her after his birth to say that little Stephen would one day become a preacher.

"That wasn't even an option," Fabyan remembered telling her.

After college, Fabyan still was bitten by the sports bug. He was the chaplain and placekicker for the semi-pro Ohio Swarm football team. He made the Mid-Continental Football League All-Star team his first year and received several offers to try out for NFL teams. After some prayer, Fabyan said that he decided full-time ministry was what he was being called to do.

"I gave up the football lights," he said. "I traded in one glory for another."

He gave up football also so that he could spend more time with his family, but despite that Fabyan said his first marriage fell apart. As a result, he was banned from preaching in the church he was in at the time.

"I thought it was kind of harsh for something out of my control," Fabyan said.

Then, while selling clothing in a flea market in 2001 and making plans for a ministry of his, Fabyan ran into Sean Henry Scott Sr. He, too, wanted to create his own ministry. With the same name. And in the same general location, at that time the Northland Mall, but the Continent is close enough. The two decided to join forces, and Team Jesus USA is the result.

The ministry now has 29 branches around the world, he said, a gospel hip hop club, a religious bookstore, a radio station and multiple video and audio studios, but Fabyan can recall the early days when he and Scott would drive around Columbus, distributing tracts and selling items they found in trash cans to help fund operations.

"It's come a long way fast, really," Fabyan said. "It's kind of humbling."

More information is available at teamjesususa.com.