WHEELING — The Ven. Joshua Saxe is able to assist when needed to help save either a soul or a life.

Saxe’s background in sports medicine is what has led him to a new position with the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia as archdeacon for community resilience and disaster response ministries.

He also continues to serve as rector at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wheeling, a position he has held for the past four years.

He was an athletic training and sports medicine major at West Virginia University when he volunteered to participate with a search and rescue group that got called out to Greenbrier County when flooding hit there in 2016.

“I did bring to my work in the community a bit of a medical background and understanding,” Saxe explained.

The group collected supplies, collected financial donations, and helped with rebuilding following the flooding. They assisted St. James Episcopal Church in Lewisburg.

Saxe is originally from Culloden, a town between Huntington and Charleston near Milton in West Virginia.

In the middle of long-term recovery efforts, he suggested efforts should take place to prepare and build supplies for when the next disaster might occur.

With assistance from a friend who was a student at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, they started a community outreach program and began a mobile health unit in Greenbrier County. Owned by St. James Church, the mobile health unit was commissioned for use in late 2019.

Only a couple of months later it would be called into action when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

It was stationed at the Robert C. Byrd clinic in Lewisburg, and Saxe said he assisted with vaccine drives.

All along, he felt he felt a calling that he might be a minister.

Saxe explained he was always active in the church and in campus ministries. He spent two years as an athletic trainer in Pittsburgh, and was considering entering medical school.

Saxe started a “discernment process” with the Episcopalian Church, during which he consulted with church leaders as to whether he had gifts that would benefit the church as a leader.

In the end, Saxe heeded a call to ministry, and opted to go for field education at seminary in New York City for two years.

“There is a clergy shortage across the board — not just in the Episcopalian Church, but in many other denominations,” Saxe said.

“I think there is interest in entering the ministry, but there is discussion of whether or not the traditional models for raising up individuals for ordination is the only model there is. Is there an opportunity for local training of church leaders?” he asked.

He said the overall decline in most church denominations “is concerning.”

“I feel the message of the gospel isn’t always being adhered to (in today’s society),” Saxe continued.

“It’s not reflecting a faith tradition that is reflective of the grace and mercy that Jesus demonstrated during his life and ministry. It will impact the work of the church,” he said.