Hello everyone and welcome to the inaugural episode of Tig Talk on 96.1 The Wit. I am your host Tig Intagliata.
Campus pastor Stephen “Tig” Intagliata, who is in his thirteenth year at Bluffton, will host his very own radio show, “Tig Talk,” on 96.1 The Wit, starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12.
Before making it to Bluffton, Intagliata has moved a lot throughout his life.
The son of first-generation Italian immigrant, Tig was born in Connecticut where his parents settled down, but when he was little, his family made the decision to move to California where he grew up.
Tig went through grade school in California, as well as attending college at the University of California Los Angeles, UCLA, where he graduated as a Bruin.
To this day, he still roots for his favorite sports teams out in California, those being UCLA and the Los Angeles Dodgers. (Go Dodgers!)
“While I was in college, I really got involved with the Christian ministry on campus and that really changed my life and help set the course of the direction of my life,” said Intagliata.
That led him to do some voluntary service work in Colorado after college and where he would meet his wife. They decided they wanted to do overseas service and they ended up going to Bolivia and working with churches in the country for about eight years.
After serving as missionaries in Bolivia, he and his wife came back to the U.S. where he pastored churches in Texas and in Arizona.
“I was kind of at a place in my ministry in the church in Phoenix where I was ready to make a change and I just started looking,” said Intagliata on how he heard about the campus pastor position at Bluffton. “I looked in actually some different Mennonite newspapers, magazines and they had some ads for job openings so I saw the opportunity for Bluffton there.”
Intagliata said he did not put much thought into campus ministry, but it sounded like a great opportunity. Though he had never been on campus, his siblings went to Bluffton and returning to the Midwest was appealing so they could be closer to family.
“I love it,” said Tig on being the campus pastor. “I love working with the students and being a pastor to the students. That’s really my job is being the pastor to the students and also training and supporting students in spiritual leadership roles on campus to also be a support to their fellow students.”
Back to the subject at hand.
Tig was approached by a couple of students on possibly doing a radio show, which planted the seed in his ear of a great opportunity.
“Growing up I wanted to be a baseball (play-by-play) announcer,” said Tig. “I listened to a lot of Dodger baseball games growing up and Vin Scully, who was the voice of
Stephen “Tig” Intagliata recording ‘Tig Talk’ in the Communication Lab
the Dodgers, he was the best and you know I just wanted to be like him so I would picture myself being on the radio.”
For Tig Talk, he would like to bring different guests on and just talk about things on campus through the lens of spiritual life while also discussing different issues.
“I would like to maybe be able to use the show as a platform to do some conversing on some tough topics,” said Tig. “I would like to let people know what is going on with spiritual life on campus as well as reflect, too, on some things that have happened like talking about some chapel messages our speakers have had or maybe interview some upcoming speakers.”
If listeners have any ideas of what they would like to here Tig talk about, or if they would like to come on his show or recommend people to be on the show, contact Tig. You can reach him through his email: intagliatas@bluffton.edu or stop by his office on the second floor of Schultz Hall, next door to the apartments.
“One of the things I would love [is] to just have students tell their stories about their own life and what led them here [Bluffton],” said Tig about students on Tig Talk. “How their relationship with God has been shaped through their life and if they have any questions or doubts or things they would like to talk about; Christianity, about God, or about the church, I would love to have some honest conversations about that kind of stuff. Not that I have all the answers but to just talk about some things.”
Tig’s first guest on Tig Talk will be Jayden Groppi, a senior business major from Parma, Ohio and a pastoral assistant.
