jay heck - BEING SONS Founder and director
Back in 2002, I was six years into a successful career as a youth pastor at a megachurch when I woke one day to discover I was good at talking about God, but in truth I was afraid of Him. This was a real obstacle.
Newly married with my firstborn on the way, I was terrified of failing. The fear manifested through overworking and unpredictable fits of anger, but it wasn’t until I realized I hated who I had become that I gave God permission to take the reins.
Hoping to find an authentic life and discover the true heart of God, I felt Him inviting me to leave what I knew and follow Him on an unfamiliar path into the marketplace. I was not eager to go but knew it was needed for my restoration.
For 12 years I worked intimately with my father in South Texas, eventually becoming co-owner and CEO of the professional services company he founded to serve the mining industry. It was hard, humbling and testing but somehow along the way I changed. I found men to walk with and fight beside (The Alamo Band of Brothers) hosting over 20 live boot camps for over 1,000 men. The gospel began to make sense and I began to understand what it means to be a son of God. In so many ways I got back the joy from my childhood. I bought my first pair of flip flops and discovered that with God at my side there is nothing I haven’t been able to handle.
In 2014 we were blessed to sell our business, making the way for a healthier reentry into full-time ministry. Over that difficult but fruitful season I literally became a new man. Like Moses, Jesus and so many characters in scripture, God tucked me away in hiding so He could initiate the boy into a man. This is when the orphan I used to be died and I learned the secret to living as a man was in being a son.
As founder and director of Being Sons, my passion and assignment in God’s Kingdom is helping men find their way home to discover that the secret to authentic, fearless, God-designed manhood begins by being a son. I love helping men take their masculine journey and lead their children up into the larger story of God.
I’m my Father’s fire-starter and warrior poet on mission to bring home brothers who’ve lost the trail.
I love to help God equip masculinity in every age and stage. But above all else, I most love being a son.
“Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.“
-King David (Psalm 51:13 MES)
