Chuck Ezell is performing director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The OPM “serves because the human useful resource company and personnel coverage supervisor for the federal authorities.” in response to its website.
Ezell was appointed by President Donald Trump to serve on this position. Ezell beforehand labored within the OPM overseeing information analytics. Because the inauguration, Ezell has been offering steerage to assist federal companies align with the president’s government orders.
However Chuck Ezell is just not an insider to Washington. Moderately, he comes from central Georgia the place he has served as a ruling elder at a PCA church. In accordance with Ezell’s pastor, Chuck is a talented shepherd and trainer. His spouse can be lively within the ladies’s ministry.
A month in the past, you could possibly discover Chuck on stage at church taking part in guitar. Now, Chuck finds himself within the information headlines as he implements the president’s government orders relating to the federal workforce.
ByFaith lately interviewed Ezell to be taught extra about him and the chance he was offered to serve the president.
Inform us about your Christian expertise. What had been the most important turning factors in your journey as a follower of Christ?
My father was a Southern Baptist minister. I used to be born in Texas however quickly moved to Georgia. We bounced round Georgia for a lot of my childhood as he took completely different pastorates. I used to be taught the central truths of the Christian religion from a younger age.
However I had a disaster of religion in school. I started to query what I actually believed. For me, it led me to learn and examine the Bible extra intensely. By God’s windfall, I used to be led to books like Knowing God by J.I. Packer and Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. They had been referencing folks like Augustine, Thomas a Kempis and John Calvin which bought me interested by historic theology.
Round that very same time, God additionally led me to a ministry on my campus known as Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). My expertise in RUF modified my life. My campus minister may discuss theology and assist me course of all of the issues I used to be questioning. He launched me to reformed theology and patiently answered all my questions. We additionally had a shared love of Counting Crows which helped as effectively. God used RUF to set me on a trajectory for the remainder of my life.
You had been launched to the reformed religion in school. What has your relationship with the church been like since then?
I’ve been a part of reformed church buildings my complete grownup life. I met my spouse in school and we’ve lived Georgia our total marriage, although we’ve bounced round from Athens to Atlanta earlier than settling in central Georgia. Throughout that journey, we had been in a position to be a part of the preliminary group to assist launch Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Athens and Ivy Creek in Lawrenceville, now often known as Restoration Presbyterian. My love of guitar gave me a option to contribute in each locations.
We had been lively in serving to plant a church with one other reformed denomination at one level. We ended up leaving that church and returning to the PCA. We appreciated the PCA due to its precept adherence to a reformed system of doctrine wherein there may be disagreements on points that aren’t major.
We lastly settled into life in central Georgia the place God led us to a PCA church. We fell in love with the church and the pastor. I used to be finally known as and ordained to function a ruling elder there. I play guitar often twice per 30 days as a part of the worship workforce.
How does a ruling elder from central Georgia find yourself serving in a key position in Washington, D.C.?
I really feel like Joseph will need to have felt when he discovered himself to be second in command in Egypt. How did I find yourself right here? There’s no easy rationalization other than the windfall of God. My profession has been in software program growth and engineering with massive information programs.
Initially, I labored within the personal sector for a variety of years travelling globally because the vp of an organization offering information and analytics software program for big enterprises. Finally, I felt my calling as a father and husband was extra vital than my position at that firm. I did one thing many would contemplate to be silly. I give up my job and took a low-level place inside OPM who has a big workplace in central Georgia. It was a major paycut however it enabled me to be extra current and lively within the lifetime of my kids.
I began coding software program programs inside OPM and that led to giving me massive initiatives to deal with. My duties have grown through the years to overseeing the info and analytics for the federal workforce.
A number of months in the past, I bought a name from one of many president’s advisors. I assumed it was a headhunter attempting to recruit me again to the personal sector which occurs considerably frequently. I took the decision which led to a collection of conferences with representatives from the president’s administration. All of the sudden, I used to be supplied the chance to function the performing director of OPM. I humbly accepted the chance to serve America and the president on this method.
What precisely does OPM do?
The Workplace of Personnel Administration serves because the human useful resource division for the federal workforce. We set and implement insurance policies. We offer steerage and course on how federal workers function.
When the president indicators personnel-related government orders, it’s left to us to supply steerage among the many federal workforce. One instance is the chief order referring to telework. As soon as the chief order was signed, our workforce was entrusted with the accountability of offering steerage to the departments and workers on how everybody might be introduced again into their buildings for work. We help the group of these efforts, and supply oversight and standing again to the White Home and Congress.
What kind of interplay with the White Home does your place contain?
My workplace interacts with the White Home daily. Our management workforce at OPM has specialists in coverage, legislation, unions, and so on. We draft memos and directives for the federal workforce to form compliance with orders from the chief department. We submit these memos and directives to the White Home for overview and approval. This requires a working relationship with the president’s chief of employees and different prime advisors.
How does your religion affect the best way you serve on this position?
First, it has compelled me to spend extra time in prayer. I’ve had demise threats and all types of vitriol come my course. When you’re in management, you turn into a goal for criticism and other people with malicious intentions. I’ve needed to take away a lot of my private data from the web. Folks have tried to hack my e-mail and cellphone. It has compelled me to show to God in methods I’ve by no means needed to earlier than.
Second, I attempt to lead with my values. As a Christian, I consider integrity is vital. The person that writes the memos by day must be similar man my spouse, kids, and associates see behind closed doorways. It additionally means attempting to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in the best way I conduct my life at work, being beneficiant, affected person, and type.
Lastly, I’m reminded that I’m the place I’m by God’s windfall. As a lot as an honor it’s to serve on the request and pleasure of the president, I do know that God has additionally sovereignly ordered my steps to be the place I’m right now. I belief that he’ll give me the knowledge to do the work he has known as me to do. In occasions like this, I’m grateful for the PCA and the prayers of God’s folks.
Editor’s observe: The identify of the PCA church the place the Ezell household at present belongs and its pastor have been withheld for safety causes.
