Leighann grew up in Powder Springs, Georgia where her parents taught her that church was more than a reason to get dressed up on Sunday! When she asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior, she was 12 years old.

“My testimony is simple. I asked Jesus to come into my heart. He did! And ‘it’ took! From that point forward I’ve walked with Him every step of the way”

    After Leighann returned from camp where she invited Jesus into her heart, she was instructed to have a “quiet time.”

“I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but because they said I needed to do this, I opened my Bible every day; printed a verse that seemed to say something to me; wrote a few thoughts and then printed a prayer.”

    This simple discipline set Leighann on a journey that continues today.

    In 1985, Leighann graduated from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and followed God’s call to full-time ministry by moving to Ft. Worth, TX where she graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master’s degree in 1988.

    While attending SWBTS, Leighann met, fell in love with and married Tom McCoy. And when they graduated from seminary, she and Tom answered the call to become the first full-time pastor and wife of a struggling mission church in Thompson Station, TN about 30 miles south of Nashville. On their first Sunday in Thompson Station the church boasted of a high attendance of 26 people.

“God did exceedingly, abundantly more than I could ask or imagine!”

    In the nearly 20 years of ministry in Thompson Station, Leighann has served as a state consultant to children, family and women and as a national consultant to women’s ministry leaders and minister’s wives. She’s also written extensively for Lifeway Christian Resources and Woman’s Missionary Union. But her primary realm of influence has been at Thompson Station Church where she and her husband have experienced God grow their small congregation to over 1500 who gather for worship each week. Leighann currently serves as the prayer and women’s ministries coordinator at TSC.

In response to a recent "Awakening" her church experienced in September where over 500 people made public decisions for Christ, Leighann said,

“God does what He wants to do when and how He wants to do it. But somehow we impact the purposes of God when we pray—somehow we experience the power of God when we pray.”

    Today Leighann is a mother, a wife—a pastor’s wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an encourager and mostly a pray-er. Through her writing and speaking ministry she wants to share what God’s taught her—that it is His desire to demonstrate His power and love in and through our lives as we partner with Him in His kingdom of work.

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