Meet the Staff: Stephen Moss

Name: Stephen Moss

Hometown: I was born and raised in Panama City Beach, Florida, just a few miles from the sugar-white sands of the Emerald Coast, surrounded by putt-putt golf, all-you-can-eat shrimp, and the roar of F-22s. After brief stints in Birmingham, AL, and Knoxville, TN, I eventually made my home in St. Louis, MO, where I’ve lived for over a decade.

Position: Director of Student Outreach

Description of work at Harvest USA: I will be supporting churches, youth pastors, and parents in their crucial Kingdom work of discipling young people in matters of sexuality and gender. Our God-given sexuality and gender play a central role in reflecting our Creator’s image and telling his story, making them prime targets for confusion and doubt by the enemy.

My job is to create resources that are rooted in the eternal truth and grace of Jesus while also addressing the particular complexities of our current cultural environment. I pray that these resources will encourage and equip you as you help your students see that God’s design for sex and gender is true, good, and beautiful. 

The culture has a compelling narrative of freedom and self-fulfillment to offer our students. We need to help them see where these promises fail to deliver but, even more foundationally, we need to help them see that Jesus is better. 

What can strip the seeming beauty from the idols of the earth?
Not a sense of right or duty, but the sight of peerless worth. 

Captivated by His beauty, worthy tribute haste to bring.
Let His peerless worth constrain thee, crown Him now unrivaled King.

How did you get to Harvest USA? God opened the door and led me here!

I used to be a well-behaved 15-year-old boy sitting in the pew every Sunday, belting out worship songs at youth group, and reading my Bible daily—all the while wondering if the Good News was actually good enough for me. Behind the mask, I was being crushed under the weight of my struggle with same-sex attraction and pornography. I was lonely, defeated, and scared. I believed in Jesus, but I couldn’t imagine Jesus wanting to touch me with a ten-foot pole. So I kept trying, performing, and hiding. 

In college, Jesus broke through my walls of self-protection and pride. At a time when I could have so easily been lured by false promises of the culture around me, my Reformed University Fellowship campus minister took me straight to Jesus. Week after week, in the long, slow process of discipleship, he took me to Jesus, and the light of the gospel began to melt my icy heart. Over the past 15 years, I’ve been on a journey of learning what it means to follow Christ in obedience and find my true identity in him. The journey has been full of twists and turns, but God has been continuing to mold me more and more into his likeness through the lifelong process of sanctification and the faithful ministry of his church. 

I am so excited to be part of this ministry that God has been using to do powerful work in the lives of sexual strugglers for over 40 years. By the grace of God, I want to help students, like that earnest, scared 15-year-old boy, meet and trust in Jesus. He will turn their world upside down. “He isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King.” 

What is your favorite scripture or book of the Bible? I’m regularly drawn to John 6:60–70. As other disciples turn back after Jesus teaches something difficult, Peter confesses, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” His confession doesn’t deny the confusion, doubt, and suffering that we encounter as disciples of Jesus. Indeed, it’s an affirmation of faith in the ultimate goodness, trustworthiness, and supremacy of Christ—even when our human understanding falls short. 

What is my favorite thing about living in St. Louis? There are so many free, fun things to do in Forest Park, like the Art Museum and St. Louis Zoo! But the coolest thing is The Muny—an outdoor, 11,000-seat theater that hosts a series of professional musical theater productions every summer. We saw Les Misérables there last summer, and it was magical. 

I also look forward to getting to know Philadelphia on my regular visits up north!

Can you tell us an interesting fact about yourself? During my senior year at Samford University, I was an intern on the Rick & Bubba Show, a nationally-syndicated morning radio show based out of Birmingham. The hosts, Rick and Bubba, “name” all their interns by having the audience call in to vote. It was close, but “Intern Yeti” won out over “Intern Mossy Oak.”

1. Hast Thou Heard Him, Seen Him, Known Him? ↩︎