From Military Commander to Community Servant

Zach Abrams spent years serving in the active-duty Army, making tough decisions, and serving God in the military. These days, however, you’ll find him serving The Lord in a different kind of role: as a dedicated family man and in full-time ministry with the The Navigators. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Zach and chat about his unique journey from military commander to community servant. To explain this transition, we first discussed his high school career, specifically about how it affected him and his decision-making skills.

Zach graduated from Pusch Ridge Christian Academy in the year 2006 at the top of his class as valedictorian. When questioned about this achievement, however, he simply said that it was a combination of the work ethic that his parents gave him and his desire to do the very best he could in everything. Becoming valedictorian simply snuck up on him without his notice. On another note, he described that, while he does not keep in touch with his friends from high school as much as he would like due to location issues, they were overall good influences on him. Zah unfortunately wasn’t confident that he was a good influence on them. While at high school, his goal was to become an engineer at West Point due to its high quality and low cost engineering school. Thus, after pursuing this goal, he became the first student at Pusch Ridge to receive a congressional nomination to West Point and was accepted. It was at this point, however, that his goals began to change.

During our interaction, Zach Abrams didn’t mention much about his college experiences, as it wasn’t particularly relevant to the topic at hand. He did mention, however, that his perspective changed, or as he put it, “It was an eye opener just in terms of being around a whole bunch of different people who didn’t necessarily think the way I did. It’s the most challenging thing I had done to date.” This increase in exposure to the world outside of Pusch Ridge, specifically his English professor, Captain Mike Warren, led to a personal revelation: he was to follow the great commission that Jesus set out for us and evangelize to others while in the military. In response to this calling, Zach decided that it was a higher priority to minister to his fellow soldiers than to excel in his Army career. This calling eventually came to fruition when Brian Trainer joined their unit. He was going through a severe trial at the time, but Zach, along with his friend Dave, helped him through it while also helping him learn how to follow Jesus. He described the moment of success as his personal greatest triumph.

After returning from his deployment to Afghanistan in 2012, he remained on active duty in Washington State, serving at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for several years. He eventually transitioned from active duty to drilling monthly in the Army Reserves in 2015 in order to spend more time with his wife, Jessica, and his three kids, Samuel, Anna, and Ruth. For about two-and-a-half years after this, he took up a job with a construction company as a project manager. He described it as a well-paying job, but one that took up too much time to either evangelize or be with his family. Zach was asked to consider coming on full-time staff with The Navigators by a mentor and close friend. After much prayer and consideration, Zach and Jessica felt the Lord calling them to accept this invitation and leave Zach’s current job. Zach subsequently assumed the role as The Navigator’s JBLM Base Director, which he has held for the past four years. He described it as a fantastic fit for his family, where he can get paid to do what he was hoping to do while also having enough time to watch his kids grow up. He also found a community there, one where he can actively work with to make disciples out of soldiers, as he did once to Brian Trainer.

Once Zach Abrams had finished describing who he was and how he got there, I asked him what advice he had for me. After patiently listening to my story, he gave some simple yet wise advice. That advice was that there are two options to approach negatives in life. The first option is to react in anger and shut yourself off, while the second was to simply let go. We must learn how to forgive those who harm us without taking what they say to heart. However, we should not dismiss criticism, but rather we must discern the truth of a claim, and respond in kind. Finally, the most important rule that Zach told me was that we should do what we must do with full effort, no matter how trivial it may seem in the moment.

Zach Abrams is a fascinating man, intelligent enough to reach the threshold of what would typically be considered success, but wise enough to put it aside in favor of what he considered success to be, which was his loved ones and the calling that God set for him.

Overall, Zach Abrams serves as an inspiring example of living a life dedicated to one's beliefs and values.