(upbeat rock music) - We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

You see, I love to take things that are old, broken, useless, or trash, and make something new, useful and treasured.

This is what God has done with us.

He's redeemed us.

My name is Jeff Walton and I'm a pastor at a local church here in the area, and I love woodworking.

It's my hobby, it's my therapy.

Woodworking has been that thing for me that just is relaxing.

(upbeat rock music) (sander buzzing) The reclaimed woodworking is really intriguing to me.

And it's intriguing to me because it really ties into who I am as a pastor and what I preach through Christ.

Our sins are forgiven and He reclaims us and He redeems us, He makes us something new.

And so it's exactly what happens with an old piece of wood or an old piece of metal or a piece of trash found on the curb.

It's taken, restored, and it's made new.

(upbeat rock music) I have a pretty significant collection, we'll say, of different kinds of woods.

I get everything I get by paying attention, observing, everywhere I go, from driving through the neighborhood to when we go to the beach as a family, picking up driftwood, to church members, you know, who have properties that have old houses on it offering for me to go take whatever I want to add to the collection or make something with.

(relaxing instrumental music) I recently read that a pastor's job is listed in the top five most stressful career paths.

The Bible calls us to bear one another's burdens, and one of my main responsibilities is counseling.

And so I sit down with lots of people and I hear about lots of things going on in their world, and it's heavy.

I hurt for them, I hurt with them, and trying to figure out how to minister to people going through the things that they're going through wears on you.

It's a challenge.

It's not something that I grew up doing.

It's not something I've been taught.

All these things are self-taught.

And so it's grown me in my patience, in my boldness, stepping out and trying things that I would never think of trying.

That sometimes comes through other people actually challenging me.

(upbeat rock music) My father-in-law came to me one day, and he wanted one of his dock poles, that's gonna be used to hold the roof up, carved on.

He wanted a tiki pole carved.

I looked at him and I told him, "That sounds a really cool, but I've never done anything like that before."

And he, with every ounce of confidence in him and faith in me, looked at me and said, "You absolutely can do this.

I've seen what you can do."

Sometimes the faith that people have in you can challenge you to the point of you trying something new and surprising yourself.

(heavy rock music) I spend a lot of time meditating on my relationship with God when I work in the shop, because of how these things work.

I don't know that I have a favorite piece.

I think I have a favorite purpose.

I think that's a better way to put it.

I love making things that benefit people.

This piece right here will go to a non-profit organization in the area to raise funds to stop trafficking.

Anything I see, I grab, because there's no such thing as scrap wood, just not wood that's been used yet.

(upbeat rock music)