Hello! I’m James Kennison

james@nlcast.com // twitter.com/nlcast // linkedin.com/in/nlcast

I’m James Kennison. I’m 49. I enjoy podcasting, art, movies, video games, writing, and collecting Buzz Lightyear stuff. I’m currently recovering from a very dark bout of major depressive disorder with a lot of anxiety… well, the parts you recover from anyway. These issues have caused a lot of problems for myself and my family… but I refuse to be a victim and have been aggressively pursuing a medical solution to my issues with great success. I still have a way to go, but I am doing what I can… and the list of “cans” grows daily.

My Pastor Stuff:

I am a credentialed minister who has served in full-time ministry between 1999 and 2013. Two years interning under my friend Pastor David Godbout in the youth group of Sheffield Family Life Center, a large inner-city church in Kansas City, Missouri, where I earned my stripes as a “Bus Pastor”. I was hired as Assistant Youth Pastor and began the church’s first Middle School Ministry, but was asked to take the Children’s Pastor position within the year which I accepted. I served with a great team of over 120 volunteers who served in various programs and ministries to children including Missionettes, Royal Rangers, JAM City Children’s Church (Grade 1-5), Jr. JAM (5-K), Junior Bible Quiz, Bus Ministry, Nite Church and Sunday night Life Groups where children learned various practical skills from godly men and women (guitar, rapping, cooking, art, etc). Somewhere in there, we had two kids.

In 2009 we moved and settled in St. Petersburg, FL, primarily to be closer to family. I served at Suncoast Cathedral as Associate Pastor of Children for 3 years. When my depression made it impossible for me to maintain my duties I resigned from my position in 2012.

I disappeared off the face of the earth for about a year working with my doctor to find the right medications to help my brain work the way it should. As of this writing (2014/07/06), I have been ‘leveled out’ for about 6 months and especially the past three. I have taken up podcasting as my primary job while I continue to recover. Eventually, I expect to be back to normal and find out what in the world I’m supposed to do with myself.

My family moved to Saint Louis, Missouri in 2015 to help my good friend David Godbout develop Novation Ministries.

My Husband Stuff:

I met my wife Jennifer at a McDonald’s in St. Simon’s Island on a Sunday night in the summer. We were dating within a couple of weeks and married 4 years later in June of 1996. Jennifer is a very, very smart person. She is a CPA and works for a large investment firm. She’s awesome.

My Dad Stuff:

I have a daughter named Jenna who is 18 and a son named J. who’s 14. That is all the kids we will be having. One of each. We’ve got the oldest… and a backup if the first drive fails. I like them both a lot. They’re good kids. They make good grades and make me proud.

My Podcasting Stuff:

I started my first podcast, Nobody’s Listening, in 2006 and have started (and ended) many other shows since then. All of these shows, past and current, can be accessed at http://nlcast.com.

My Artwork Stuff:

I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. I got my first real art job back in 1994 drawing t-shirt art some of the time, and printing shirts the rest of the time. Eventually, I moved into doing digital art after teaching myself how to design websites and getting a job at a local ISP called MyLink in Macon, GA. I started with Corel Draw 3 and went to 10 or 11 before finally making the jump to Photoshop. Never looked back. I do art for hire over at drawyouapicture.com specializing in logos and podcast cover art. I tried to be a webcomic artist for a while. I tried to create an original piece of Buzz Lightyear-based art for a year. I made it to 239 before the depression started taking things away from me.

My Buzz Lightyear Stuff:

I’ve been a Buzz Lightyear fan since I saw the first Toy Story in 1995. I bought my first Buzz collectible, a large action figure, in 1996 on my honeymoon at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I’ve been collecting ever since. Early on I would buy up anything with Buzz on it: band-aids, soup cans, pop-tarts, toothpicks, balls, fake cell phones, or whatever I could find. As the years have passed I only collect highly original items that can be displayed. No fun buying something and tossing it in a Tupperware container. Why Buzz? Why do people collect Hello Kitty, Star Wars stuff, or Roosters? I just like the character. I like his shape, his color, his story, his voice… I even love him when he’s dressed as Mrs. Nesbit. Nuff said. You can see a series of posts on my Buzz Lightyear collection here.

My Writing Stuff:

I tried to be a writer once. I wrote a whole book called Sorta Kinda Superpowered. It’s a Super Hero middle-reader for ages 8-12 about a boy who finds a pin that gives him special powers which is awesome until he finds that it belongs to the world’s only superhero… who needs it back badly. I released it as an audiobook in podcast format and on Kindle. You can check it out at SortaKindaSuperpowered.com

My Depression Stuff:

I hate depression. I hate what my depression did to me, took from me, and how it has affected my family. I am thrilled to be on the other end of this bout and though I have nary a clue as to what the future holds… I’m going to do everything in my power to make it easy for that future to come to pass. You can follow my journey via my audio journal: The Gospel of Kennison