Our Story
The pulpit and the marsh, finally in the same place.
How a lifelong pastor and lifelong retriever man built a ministry to bring his two great loves together.
The Mission
Faith finds you in the field.
The people who love this sport give their weekends to the road, to their dogs, and to one another. When you are three states from home and running the second series at first light, Sunday morning church is hard to reach.
So we bring it to the field. Led by Tim Burdon, a minister, trainer, and lifelong retriever man, the ministry is a friendly, encouraging presence at AKC and HRC hunt tests: a handshake, a word of prayer, resources for the road, and the hope of Christ for anyone who wants it. Some mornings that means a short worship gathering at sunrise. Most weekends it is simply showing up, season after season. Come in your waders. Bring your dog. Bring a friend.
“He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.”Psalm 23:2–3
We come to you
No building, no membership. Just a familiar face and an open seat at the tests you already run.
Faith, no pressure
The hope of Christ, shared honestly, for anyone who wants it. Come as you are, with dogs and kids welcome.
One big family
Handlers, judges, gunners, and gallery, all side by side and all welcome.
The Story
Two loves, one calling.
Retriever Hunt Test Ministry didn't begin with a plan. It began with a man who spent his whole life loving two things at once, and a season that finally let him bring them together.
A pastor’s calling
For decades, Tim Burdon gave his life to the church. He preached, he taught, and he walked with people through their best days and their hardest ones. Sunday morning was his post, and he loved it.
A retriever man’s heart
The other half of him lived at the water’s edge. He loved to hunt, loved waterfowl, and loved the patient craft of training a good retriever. Cold mornings, wet dogs, and the hush before first light felt like holy ground.
Two worlds, one weekend
But hunt tests run on weekends, and so did church. For most of his life Sunday belonged to the congregation, and the tests went on without him. He loved both worlds and could rarely stand in both at once.
In retirement, the two became one
When Tim stepped back from full-time pastoring, he didn’t set either love down. He married them. Retriever Hunt Test Ministry is the result: a pastor’s heart and a retriever man’s home, carrying the gospel to the sport and the family he has loved his whole life.
Three Purposes
Worship together. Raise awareness. Share Christ.
Everything we do points back to those three. New to the sport? Learn how hunt tests work, then come find us at one.