Biography: Joshua Wade McCallister was born on April 19^th, 1979 in Anderson, South Carolina. Most of his childhood years were spent in Ottawa, Kansas and then Kansas City, Missouri. As a teen, Josh moved with his family to Garland, TX where he later graduated from high school. Josh received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Texas Tech University. He was an active member of the Wesley Foundation there. That’s also where he met his beloved wife Candace, and they married at Oakwood United Methodist Church on June 8, 2002.
 
The highlights of his career included Youth and Small Group Ministry at Kingswood United Methodist Church in Clovis, New Mexico; furniture design and sales at Plain and Simple Amish Furniture in Evanston, Illinois; and teaching elementary art in the Little Rock School District, most notably at Fullbright Elementary School.
 
Josh was one of those kinds of people who drew you in quickly with a disarming smile and just the right kind of teasing – the kind that helped you take yourself less seriously and freed you to join in the conversation suddenly more relaxed and playful. Josh had nicknames for many people and phrases he liked to repeat about others. Many were fun and seemed to have no meaning, and others cut right to the heart. For years, when he would see his wife, he would say “a beauty and a wonder!”
 
Josh was not only winsome but also deeply discerning. He had an uncanny ability to judge character and see people clearly for who they were. More importantly, he cared for the people around him. He could see people’s gifts and was quick to affirm them. He spoke up boldly and regularly for the least of these. He gave sacrificially of his time and money, aware of his privilege and deeply committed to radical love that means being willing to change your whole life
 
Josh was a true artist. His art was the culmination of his thinking and reading and searching for truth. He would think about a piece for a long time - taking into account symbolism and structure and then often lay down the images and colors quickly. He also had a gift for portraits, truly capturing the likeness of people.
 
Josh loved Jesus, and he cared deeply about discipleship, community, and the poor. This all began when he was in college and lived in a Christian community in Chicago called Jesus People. He once stayed up the whole night working in a women’s shelter and read Isaiah 58 for the first time. These experiences in community were seeds that grew into plants and then blossomed and produced fruit in the years to come.
 
After many years of leading small groups and teaching about discipleship, Josh and his wife discerned a call to start a Christian Community. They decided to move to Reba Place Fellowship, an established community in Evanston Illinois, to be nurtured in this calling. They ended up joining the common purse community, having an incredible experience living there, and then later being sent by the community to start a new one in Little Rock, Arkansas.
 
Josh was committed to the radical way of Jesus, relocation out of all white neighborhoods, anti-racism, redistribution of wealth, being under the leadership of people of color, living off the excess of a materialistic culture instead of buying new things, and dreaming up new ways to live outside broken systems and the injustice of the “empire.” In Little Rock, he and his family were members of New Millennium Church and also involved in work across denominations.
 
Josh was a teacher. He was a teacher all the time – at home with his kids, with groups of people in Bible studies, in daily tasks – but he was also an elementary school art teacher for the last years of his life. He loved his work and found meaning in teaching children something so different than the rest of their school day. In so many ways, though Josh’s full vision of community in Little Rock was not realized in his lifetime, he taught everyone around him about the ways of Jesus and inspired a beautiful showing of community and support in the last years of his life, something he saw as another way of teaching love and vulnerability and a different way of living and dying to any who were watching.
 
Perhaps most importantly, Josh was a deeply loving and committed father. He was the kind of dad who was hands on from day one – there to literally catch his babies, cut their cords, change their diapers, clean up their messes, and generally delight in them. He carved out one on one time with them from the beginning, even prioritizing this in his final weeks of life. He taught them from his heart, giving them the gifts of humor (they were his biggest dinnertime comedy fans), art, and faith. His goal throughout his battle with cancer was to live as long as possible – for them. His heart was broken not to be able to see them grow into adulthood.
 
Josh passed from this life peacefully and at home on Christmas Day at 11:45 pm in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Charles and Jeanne McCallister, and his maternal grandfather, Harold Stewart. He is survived by his wife, Candace, and his three children Jedidiah Wake (15), Lilia Mercy (12), and Simeon Thomas (9). He is also survived by Evelyn Stewart (his grandmother), Jane McCallister (his mother), Chris McCallister (his father), Jason McCallister (his brother), Jessica Knight (his sister), Chris Knight (his brother-in-law), and Julia Knight (his niece). He is also survived by many in-laws in the Nisbett family and by countless friends. He lived from the heart, and that’s the kind of person we all wish didn’t have to leave.
 
Josh’s family and friends will host a Celebration of Life for him on March 27^th, 2022 at Ferncliff outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. All are welcome. Josh’s wish was that lots of people would come!