Sam Nunnally

Raised as an evangelical in South Georgia, all I ever wanted to do was serve God in the church. I felt that calling as a teenager and focused my life around fulfilling that calling. After years working with youth, college students, and as a music director, I got called up to the “big leagues.” Work as a pastor was fulfilling and I loved it.

I’ve always been an avid reader. And my desire to know more about God led me to begin studying church history in detail. Seminary classes put the church fathers directly in front of me. And it became clear that they were very, very Catholic! I remember putting my head in my hands at my desk thinking, “Oh no, I’ve done it wrong.”

I continued to serve in non-denominational and Methodist churches while desperately trying to fit the reality of what I’d learned about the early church fathers inside a protestant model. After years of trying, I realized it couldn’t be done.

I eventually left church work and entered the finance world. I also started attending Mass. Finally, my struggles with Protestantism ran headfirst into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus in the Catholic Church. It enthralled me as all the pieces of the “puzzle” began to make sense. 

But as a former pastor, I knew I had to work through the caricatures, assumptions, and misgivings I had about the Catholic faith. And I did - methodically and reflectively. And it took years! Finally, I realized that it’s okay to be Catholic: scripturally, liturgically, historically, and spiritually. Catholicism makes sense.

After converting, I felt the desire to return to full-time ministry. It was a relentless desire and I went to my local priest for guidance. I landed as the Director of Catholic Ministry at Florida State University. Now, I help hundreds of students know that it’s okay to be Catholic…and if I do it well, they won’t take decades like it took me!