Terry Kasselman

Care & Recovery Director

I was born in Shreveport, Louisiana but my dad was an Air Force pilot, so after spending much of my youth moving around and seeing the world, we returned to Shreveport when dad retired. I made a profession of faith at age 11 but my teenage years showed no real evidence of a changed life. After drinking and partying my way onto academic probation at Louisiana Tech University, I cried out for God to help me inside the Ruston City Jail where I was sleeping off a DWI. My life radically changed when I placed my faith in Jesus Christ that day. I joined a campus ministry (CRU) and began to grow in my faith. I got married after graduation and later completed military training and was commissioned as an Air Force officer. The military taught me a lot about discipline and leadership and my faith in Jesus Christ continued to grow along with the size of our family.

We moved to Dallas in 1997. I left active duty and entered the Air Force Reserve and began attending Dallas Theological Seminary. After graduating in 2003 with a ThM, I joined the staff of a local church we had attended throughout seminary assuming the role of associate pastor. The challenges of working on a church staff that was going through a difficult leadership transition created a tremendous strain on my marriage. Moral failure led to my resignation almost 3 years later and my 26-year marriage ended a few years after that.

Reeling from the guilt and shame of my destructive behavior and bringing the immense pain I had inflicted on my family into my second marriage, my life was spiraling out of control. In early 2011, I wandered into a Recovery ministry at Watermark Dallas and found a couple hundred fellow strugglers who were asking God to intervene into their broken lives. The 12 biblical steps reacquainted me with my merciful Savior and I began to work through my sinful actions as a pastor, husband, and father. His relentless pursuit of me saved my second marriage and over time, restored damaged relationships with children, family, and friends. I began to serve in that Recovery ministry (now called Regeneration) as a group leader, a mentor and then a coach. In 2015, when Watermark opened their Plano campus, we joined the new launch, and I volunteered to help start the Regeneration ministry in Plano. In 2021, Watermark Plano became CityBridge Community Church. In September 2022 I left the corporate world to join the CityBridge Staff as the Regeneration and Men’s Pastoral Care Director. Then in May 2025 I became the Care and Recovery Director. God really does make beauty from ashes, and I love watching Him radically change the lives of men and women who have discovered that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can change anyone with ANY struggle in any moment and turn a mess into a message of hope for others.

My wife and I have a blended family, and we enjoy spending time with our children and grandchildren! We love taking trips with the family, but we also enjoy quiet mornings with coffee, relaxing at home and working in the yard. I’m a sports junkie who roots for our local professional teams, but my Louisiana roots make me a lifelong citizen of Who Dat Nation, Go Saints!