It’s a classic romance story.
An unplanned encounter. Hours talking on a back porch. An evening that no one wants to end. Reciting passages from the “Westminster Confession of Faith.”
“As we were talking she quoted the confession on the perspicuity of Scripture. My heart skipped a beat,” said Sheldon Nordhues.
Sheldon and Laura Nordhues have what Laura calls “the most PCA love story ever.” They met at the PCA General Assembly, fell in love over doctrine, and now, married and with a seven-month-old daughter, both work in the denomination. Sheldon is a giving strategist for the PCA Foundation and Laura is an administrative coordinator at Grace Church in Canton, Georgia.
But their story begins in heartbreak. Both experienced divorces. Laura suffered infertility and miscarriages. And after walking those lonely roads with their families and respective churches, both were wary of romance.
“[I thought] the likelihood of meeting a man who is a believer and in line with my beliefs to the extent to where I would consider dating again – not going to happen,” Laura said. “[I thought], ‘The Lord has suffering for me in this life, He’s growing me and using me in other people’s lives, and that’s my story: suffering.’ I didn’t expect that he would shower on blessing after blessing after blessing.”
The shower of blessings began in 2022 when Birmingham-area PCA churches needed volunteers for the General Assembly worship team. Laura had never attended an Assembly before, but her brother and sister-in-law were coming to town for the Assembly, and she wanted to spend time with them. So she signed up.
Sheldon, on the other hand, regularly attended the Assemblies in his capacity as director of development with Reformed Theological Seminary, working a booth in the exhibit hall and hosting after-hours events for RTS alumni or donors.
This time, as one of the alumni events wound to a close, Laura arrived with her brother’s family. The group hit it off so well they didn’t want to stop when the venue asked them to leave, so they moved to Laura’s back deck. Laura talked about singing at church and what she was reading and studying.
“I was like, Who is this woman?” Sheldon said. Then she quoted the “Westminster Confession,” and he knew he was interested.
After the Assembly, Sheldon said he tried to play it cool, connecting with her on social media like he connected with everyone he met at events. And he kept thinking about messaging her.
Not long after the Assembly Sheldon met a friend who needed help finding a church in the neighborhood where Laura lived. This was the excuse he needed.
Sheldon sent Laura a message, and the conversation never stopped.
Within a week they had talked for 20 hours, Laura remembered. They talked about their faith, their life missions, and how they wanted to live their lives. Laura asked whether Sheldon would support adoption, because doctors had told her she would likely never have a child.
“We vetted each other very thoroughly about everything,” she remembered. “The more I got to know him the more I realized he was above and beyond anything I ever thought [I’d have].”
They weren’t the only ones doing the vetting. Both their families and church sessions were deeply involved.
“We are the most vetted couple in the history of couples,” Sheldon said. “All of our people were super supportive, and that was really important to us.”
For both of them, knowing the other held firmly to the tenets of the Reformed faith was essential.
“The understanding of God’s sovereignty and how salvation works, to me it plays into so many things,” Laura said. “I wanted to be on the same page because it plays into the theology of suffering, how you view your life, the things that God takes you through.”
Sheldon said he wanted a partner who didn’t just have a “passing, cursory” understanding of theology, but who shared his deep interest and worldview.
“I wanted somebody who, when I read these books, I can talk about these books with; or who can read these books with me, or hear about these books, and have this deep connection,” he said. “If you have a different theological worldview, then how do you make sense of this life?”
Sheldon proposed on April Fools’ Day 2023, giving her a Bible engraved with Laura’s name and his own last name. They were on that back deck, Sheldon kneeling on the same board where he sat that night she quoted the Confession.
They were married in July in a ceremony officiated by both of their pastors. Eleven months later, they welcomed their daughter, Joy Ann.
“The Lord worked this double miracle, for me to get pregnant and to stay pregnant and to give us this sweet child so soon,” Laura said. “[We] can’t imagine what the Lord has for us in our lives.”
Sheldon jokes that he doesn’t understand why more men don’t look for wives at the General Assembly.
“Our story is pretty miraculous,” he said.