Sometimes a single moment can redirect the course of an entire life.

For years, Chris Justice was a respected and recognizable voice in local television news.

But behind the camera, he was wrestling with a deeper calling, one that came into sharp focus after a frightening encounter.

Carolina Impact's Chris Clark shares his story with us.

- At least ten people injured- - [Chris Clark] For years, Chris Justice was one of the most familiar faces of Charlotte television.

What viewers knew was the anchor.

What they couldn't yet see was that the calling had been there all along.

- Church was a family thing and it was so much fun.

And then there was a guy who would do the announcements.

I'm like, "That's, I wanna be that guy."

I want to be the guy that they think enough of that he can go onto the platform where the pastor is and tell the church what's going on.

What an honor.

- [Chris Clark] That urge to be the one delivering the message didn't stop at church.

On the farm in Ohio, it followed him right to the sports page and the six o'clock news.

- Could not wait for the end of the day to watch the six o'clock newscast to see what was going on with the Buckeyes.

I'd go to the mailbox, get the afternoon newspaper, go into the house.

I would read through it like I was a sportscaster.

- [Chris Clark] What started as a kid's dream was slowly becoming real one tape, one market, one break at a time.

- I went from Oak Hill to New Bern, North Carolina.

I was a sports guy there for three and a half years.

And then, here's a job in Charlotte and I thought, "Well man, if you do sports in North Carolina, Charlotte's the place," and sent a tape and sure enough, I got the job.

And again, couldn't believe it.

(VCR whirs) (bright music) - [Chris Clark] In local television, a resume tape can tell you what somebody can do.

Chuck Howard says Chris told him something else too.

Where he came from, how he was wired, and why he might belong in Charlotte.

- Chris' resume tape was just tremendous.

All his contacts worked out.

Called him, told me he grew up on a, the farming community, in a farming community just like I did.

And it, I wanna say it was love at first sight.

Let's just say it was like at first sight.

- [Chris Clark] Covering the Hornets, the Panthers, and everything in between.

The move to Charlotte felt like the next big step.

What he didn't know was one ordinary night would become the most terrifying test of his life.

(tense music) - It's about two in the morning and I get home to the apartment.

I get ready to walk in and I hear a guy say, "Hey, buddy," but it was an aggressive, "Hey, buddy."

And I turn around and there was a gun right in my face.

There was another guy with him.

They got me in a car and they drove me off the property.

I remember, then, there was this moment where everything sort of came to a weird stop - [Chris Clark] With a gun to his head and no idea how the night would end, his thoughts settled on something he had wondered about for years.

- You always wondered about how strong your faith would be when you were really faced with death, this is it.

And in that moment, I still have this faith and I'm probably gonna die tonight.

- [Chris Clark] The question of faith had been answered.

Now came the question of survival.

- They took me to a dead end road and told me to get outta the car.

They turned the car around, told me to walk back to the car and I took off running and they fired a shot and they drove away, and I was alive.

- [Chris Clark] He survived and when he got home, the first thing Chris wanted to talk about wasn't the gun or the chase or even the shot.

- I remember going in to talk to Becky and saying, "The most amazing thing happened to me tonight."

She had thought maybe they hit me with the gun.

She said, "Are you okay?

Are you okay?"

I was certainly to the point where I thought I was gonna die.

And in that moment, I felt a calm over me that my faith is real.

- [Chris Clark] He returned to the newsroom changed.

The night that tested his faith did not slow his rise, it sharpened it.

And when tragedy struck at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May of 2000, Chris was the steady voice in the middle of the chaos.

- That night, I was locked in the infield and I couldn't get out to where the tragedy had occurred.

And I say, thankfully, Chris was on hand to take the ball and run with it.

- There is a report that at Northeast Medical Center, there is one person in the operating room now.

- It was that night that I went home to my wife, Karen, and I go, "There's big things ahead for this guy."

- [Chris Clark] By the time the coverage ended, the next step in Chris's career no longer felt like a question.

- I remember that Monday after that coverage, our news director walked into the sports office and said, "Hey, have you ever thought about doing news?"

And at that moment, I knew we had lost him to news.

- [Chris Clark] He had climbed to the top.

Chris Justice had everything he thought the job was supposed to give him.

And almost as soon as he got it, something inside told him it still wasn't enough.

(gentle music) - Everything was great.

I thought I had arrived, but something was missing and I didn't know what it, exactly what it was.

- [Chris Clark] So he leaned harder into church, hoping service might quiet what success hadn't.

And the person who knew him best could see the ache wasn't going anywhere.

His wife, Becky, finally pushed him towards something he hadn't expected.

- My wife said, "You need to be a Sunday school teacher."

And I thought, "Well I don't wanna be a Sunday school teacher because I love the book but I haven't read it that much."

And my wife was right.

I started teaching Sunday school at Hickory Grove and fell in love with the book.

- You could just tell it was like he, this is not just something he wants to do on Sunday.

- [Chris Clark] Then came the chance to speak at Macedonia Baptist Church and with it, the moment Chris says his gift finally found its truest purpose.

- And I felt in that moment, not only did I belong there, which seems odd to have said, I belong here because this is where God wants me to be and because this is where God wants me to be, I can't be anywhere else.

- [Chris Clark] That was the turn.

Not away from television but toward a calling.

And for a while, he did both.

Anchor in Charlotte, preacher in Monroe.

But to the people who knew him best, the ending never really felt like a surprise.

- His calling initially was to be a sportscaster, a broadcaster, a newscaster.

But deep in his heart or big guy upstairs said, "That's good.

Get it outta your system because I want you to come over here and do something that's really special."

- [Chris Clark] And when the point came that television and ministry could no longer live side by side, there really wasn't a decision left to make.

- If I could do that and TV, great, but when the church got to the size, I couldn't do that and TV, it had to go.

I could make you this promise as your pastor, standing at this call every Sunday will be a man is steeped in the word of God.

- [Chris Clark] The small church Chris Justice once drove to between newscasts did not stay small for long.

It kept growing in size and reach and in the lives it touched.

But the people closest to him say the reason goes deeper.

- They knew I worked with him in TV and they would kind of almost imply that he's a good preacher because he was on TV and I go, "No, he's not a good preacher 'cause he was on TV.

He's a good preacher 'cause he's a godly man."

- [Chris Clark] He once told Charlotte what mattered that day.

Now from a different platform, he's still doing the same thing he wanted to do from the beginning.

Stand up, speak clearly, and deliver the message.

From Carolina Impact, I'm Chris Clark.