Pastor Keenan Tyler hails from Brooklyn, New York. He did not grow up in a Christian household, however, the influence of his grandmother and childhood babysitter fostered a love for God and for people at a very young age. Pastor Tyler didn’t fully submit to God until he was a young adult.

Upon graduating high school, Pastor Tyler moved to upstate New York to play basketball at a junior college. One year after graduating from junior college, he joined the United States Navy. He was subsequently stationed in Newport News and Norfolk, Virginia.

In 2002, Pastor Tyler visited a non-denominational church in Chesapeake, Virginia. After an invitation to come out and play for the church basketball team, Pastor Tyler soon joined the church and quickly got involved. Shortly thereafter, the senior pastor began to groom Pastor Tyler to be his assistant.

One day in the summer of 2003, Pastor Tyler received a brochure in the mail to attend a nearby prophecy seminar in Virginia Beach. God used the prophecy seminar and a local church elder to witness to Pastor Tyler. When the seminar was complete, he knew God was calling him to join the Seventh-day Adventist movement.

One year later, in 2004, Pastor Tyler joined Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church in Newport News, Virginia. While attending the church, Pastor Tyler could still feel a call on his life to go into ministry and preach the new truth he had learned full-time. With the mentorship of Pastor Trevor Kinlock, he began his journey to full-time ministry. When his time of service in the military was up, he enrolled at Andrews University, where he graduated with a Master of Divinity degree. After seminary, Pastor Tyler was hired by the Allegheny East Conference, where he served as the assistant pastor of Calvary SDA in Newport News, Virginia, and the planting pastor of Coastal Shores in Virginia Beach.

Pastor Tyler is passionate about his wife and best friend, the former Ebony Elliott. Together, they have three kids—Kiyanna, Amaya, and Elijah.

Through the years, Pastor Tyler has adopted the motto that he lives by: “Pain is just weakness leaving the body,” and his favorite text is Philippians 4:13—”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”