A MEMOIR BY STEVE MCMILLION
Beyond Kyle Road
A Journey of Faith, Family, Memories & Purpose
Every life begins somewhere. This one begins at the end of a farm road in Ohio.
Welcome to the website of Steve McMillion, author and longtime pastor. His memoir opens on a family farm on Kyle Road in Dorset, Ohio, and follows one life through school, work, military service, marriage, and a lifetime of ministry.
If you enjoy farmer’s life books, you will find the hayloft, the dairy barn, and the family table waiting for you. If you simply like honest stories about ordinary people, you will find those here too.
“Kyle Road is where this story begins. It is not where it ends.”
The Story
A Boy, a Dog, and a Farm He Never Meant to Leave
At eight years old, Steve knew exactly one home: the family farm on Kyle Road in Dorset, Ohio. His grandfather’s dairy farm sat a mile down the road. It was a world of open fields, hayloft games, family dinners, and tadpoles scooped into one of his mother’s mason jars.
Then, one June, a “For Sale” sign appeared in the yard. The family was moving to Xenia, in the southern part of the state, and Queeny, the family dog, would stay behind with a neighbor. Steve promised her he would come back someday.
That promise is where Steve McMillion begins his story, and what it turns into is the heart of the book.
Chapter
A Life Told One Memory at a Time
The story travels from Dorset to Xenia, then on to Charlottesville and Scottsville in Virginia. Along the way it lingers on the small things: sibling mischief, family traditions, school days, friendships, first jobs, courtship, and marriage. There is plenty of laughter, and there is loss, too. Underneath it all runs faith, which began with the stories his mother read to him as a child and grew into a lifelong relationship with Scripture and God.
Chapter
From Farm Boy to Army Chaplain and Pastor
The road eventually carried Steve well past the fields of Kyle Road. He spent thirteen years in the military, including time as an Army chaplain. After that came thirty-four years as pastor of twenty-one United Methodist churches, and he still pastors part-time. Through every stage, the same values held steady: hard work, family, faith, perseverance, and showing up for other people.
13
Years of military service
34
Years in ministry
21
Churches pastored
BEYOND THE FARM
The Promise That Changed Shape
For years, Steve believed that keeping his promise to Queeny meant going back to Kyle Road. Looking back across a lifetime, he sees it differently. What he was searching for was never only a farm. It was belonging, purpose, and the quiet assurance that his life mattered.
This is a memoir about how the places we leave keep shaping us, and how faith can steady a person even when the answers are slow to come.
Sometimes the road leads forward instead of home.
Inside the Book
What You’ll Find on These Pages
Unlike many books on American farm life, this memoir follows the boy long after he leaves the farm, through school, work, service, and family of his own.
01
Farm Days
Step into the hayloft, the dairy barn, the fields, and the kitchen of the McMillion family farm in rural Ohio. Experience the routines, responsibilities, and simple moments that shaped Steve’s early years.
02
Family Ties
Meet the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and foster children who became part of Steve’s world. Through their stories, discover the relationships, challenges, and connections that taught him what family truly means.
03
Faith Takes Root
Discover how the stories Steve’s mother read to him as a boy planted the seeds of a lifelong faith. Follow how those early lessons grew over time and eventually became part of his calling.
04
Called to Serve
Follow Steve from the responsibilities of boyhood into military service and a life centered on caring for others. See how the experiences of his younger years helped shape his sense of duty, service, and purpose.
05
Meeting Jeanette
Read the story of how courtship, engagement, and marriage brought Steve and Jeanette together. Their relationship marks the beginning of a shared life built through love, commitment, family, and the experiences they faced side by side.
06
Lessons Learned
Life brings laughter, disappointment, change, and loss. Through these experiences, Steve discovers that some of life’s most lasting lessons come from ordinary days, familiar places, and the people who walk beside us.
Steve McMillion
Meet the Author
Steve McMillion
The Steve McMillion author story starts in rural Dorset, Ohio, where farm chores, church, family, and adventure gave a boy his first lessons about the kind of person he wanted to become.
Military service followed, including thirteen years in uniform and time as an Army chaplain. Then came thirty-four years as pastor of twenty-one United Methodist churches. Today he continues to serve part-time as a pastor.
In Beyond Kyle Road, Steve McMillion gathers the people, lessons, laughter, heartbreak, and faith that shaped his life into one book.
Why This Memoir Is Worth Your Time
Almost everyone has a place that shaped them. A childhood home. A family kitchen. A school bus route. A first job. A church. A person who changed everything.
Beyond Kyle Road invites you to think about your own, and to remember who helped you become who you are. It also adds a first-person voice to the shelf of farmer’s life books, written by someone who lived the life he describes.
- Home.
- Work.
- Family.
- Calling.
- Faith.
START HERE
Take the Road with Steve
Spend a few hours with a farm family, a faithful dog, and a life of service. Whether you came looking for books on American farm life or simply a good memoir about family and faith, Beyond Kyle Road is ready when you are.
