Taigan Rogers - At a Spiritual Crossroads

by Dan Cryer

These days, Taigan Rogers finds himself at something of a crossroads. Since he was twelve years old, he’s been involved with the youth group at Summit Woods Baptist Church. But once he graduates from high school in May (he’s in a program that allows him to take college classes while enrolled in high school), Taigan will no longer be a “youth” in the church’s eyes, so he’ll need to transition out of the youth group. Summit Woods and its youth programs are a central part of Taigan’s social and spiritual life, so he will definitely stay involved with the church - but how? That’s something he’s trying to figure out.

Taigan has wavy blonde hair cropped short on the sides and a medium build. He’s not overly talkative, and he takes his time giving you a laugh or a smile, but he has lots to say about Summit Woods and it’s easy to tell that he takes his role in their community seriously. He says that being part of the church community means that “you are learning constantly, with great people.” This learning might be about your own personal journey and how to handle life situations, or it might be about Christianity itself and the Bible - or a combination of all these things.

One of Taigan’s favorite things about his church is the almost scholarly approach that their pastor, Bret Capranica, takes to his sermons. They’ll delve so deeply into a single book of the Bible that it can take months or even years to get through it, with Pastor Capranica discussing just a couple to a few verses each week. One book, II Corinthians, took the church two years to get through fully. In these deep Biblical dives, topics of discussion go beyond the words themselves into the historical contexts in which they were written, and into big themes like sin, fear, and faith. Taigan loves this approach because he learns a tremendous amount each week.

Summit Woods has also been an important social outlet for Taigan. Because he was homeschooled, he wasn’t thrown into the forced social world of public schooling. But his church has provided a steady community of friends for much of his life, especially the youth group. This is one reason why leaving it is such a big deal. And it isn’t so much that he spent all his time with the youth group, but that he played a specific role there, like leading games on certain nights of the week. What, he wonders, will his new roles outside of the youth group look like?

Taigan is transitioning in other ways as well. After he graduates high school in May he plans to enroll at the University of Central Missouri, in Warrensburg. UCM, he says, has a renowned criminal justice program, where many of the criminal justice professors are themselves retired police. He hopes to get his degree and eventually work in law enforcement, though he hasn’t settled on a particular branch - “Maybe the FBI or SWAT,” he says, but he’s clear to note that working for the FBI is a long-shot. “They take the best of the best,” he says, “it’s really competetive.” But UCM does send two of its best criminal justice students to FBI internships every year, so getting an opportunity at the Bureau isn’t impossible. Noting all the current news about the FBI, I asked if that made the Bureau any less attractive to him. “No,” he said, “if I got the opportunity I know I would just do my job.”

Even though he’ll be at UCM, Taigan still plans to come home on weekends and attend Summit Woods. I asked him why he didn’t want to branch out in Warrensburg and try a new church. He said that he actually has tried other churches, and that the community and deep attention to scripture at Summit Woods makes it feel more like home than anywhere else. For Taigan, the best thing about having that community is “being able to have like-minded friends to grow with as people and as believers.”