William grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. The son of gifted Bible teachers, he has loved the Lord from his earliest years. He graduated from Baylor University summa cum laude. William met his wife, Lynn, at Grace Theological Seminary (Indiana), where both earned master’s degrees in Biblical Counseling, studying under Dr. Larry Crabb and Dr. Dan Allender. Lynn was a free spirit from Southern California, and William was a Southern gentleman. Can you say culture clash? At first they struggled to get along. William even remarked to a friend, “I wouldn’t marry Lynn if she were the last woman on earth!”
Needless to say, the Lord has a sense of humor! Over the course of the counseling program, William and Lynn soon became best friends. After graduating and returning to Memphis, William realized he missed his “soulmate.” The problem was that he knew Lynn was dating someone. Not wanting to live the rest of his life without his best friend, he decided to take a step of faith and share with Lynn how he felt. As his uncle wisely put it, “William, love is like a Mac truck; you just have to throw yourself in front of it and see if it hits you!”
It took several months, but that truck finally hit Lynn, too! William and Lynn were married in January 1989. At that time William was working as a counselor at a Christian drug and alcohol treatment center for adolescents and their families. Lynn worked part-time as a counselor for a local church. They planned to open their own counseling center, but the Lord had other plans!
About the same time that William and Lynn got married, the Lord called William to pray daily for Revival and Spiritual Awakening in the U.S. and the world. Little did the Lewises know what was in store for them! From 1989-1991, the Lord moved in supernatural ways to call them to missions, more specifically to Russia. They moved to St. Petersburg in October 1991, right before the Soviet Union collapsed that December. (It’s quite a story!)
William and Lynn served as missionaries in Russia for more than seven years. They then moved to Haifa, Israel, to serve with a Messianic Jewish congregation. In 2002, the Lord stirred them to return to the U.S., specifically to Washington, DC. For several years, William ministered on Capitol Hill, meeting with Christian members of Congress, encouraging them to stand in the gap in intercession for Revival and Spiritual Awakening.
During that time William also became involved with some praying communities of young adults in DC. The young adult leader of one of those communities asked William to mentor him while he was in graduate school. That mentoring relationship led to a ministry partnership in college ministry on DC-area campuses.
Throughout their three decades of missionary service both at home and abroad, a theme emerged. William and Lynn were increasingly distressed by the toll that they saw missionary and ministry life take on friends and colleagues. They witnessed firsthand both the personal and ministerial damage caused by burnout, and the resulting attrition of sincere kingdom servants. They were grieved to see lives shipwrecked, marriages and families broken, and ministries destroyed.
In 2013, the Lord began to open doors for William to minister to hurting leaders from many different arenas of kingdom service. William and Lynn began to pray and wonder whether the Lord was leading them full circle, back to an original vision to start a pastoral counseling ministry. For many years they dreamed about opening a safe harbor where struggling pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders could come to find rest, refreshment, and renewal.
That dream became a God-given vision in 2019, when William and Lynn moved to Panama City Beach, Florida, to start Bethesda By the Sea, a pastoral care and counseling ministry for hurting kingdom servants. For more information, visit BethesdaByTheSea.com. He also has a unique evangelistic website. Check it out at TheFatherWantsYou.com. William’s podcast, In My Father’s House with William, focuses on God’s distinct purposes for us as male and female image-bearers and how we are called to glorify Him in unique ways. His book, Sons of Issachar for the 21st Century: Understanding God’s Heart for Our Times is available on Amazon.
A gifted speaker, William is available for conferences and retreats. In his spare time he enjoys classic movies, time with his family, and driving a Jeep. Connect with William at info@bethesdabythesea.com.
