More and more, it’s the people with whom I’ve walked through life who become the lens through which I understand my story. My identity as a kid was formed by football games with neighborhood friends, painting sessions in the garage with my mother (who thought all her children were artistic!), and by teachers in school who affirmed me beyond my deserving. My classmates at Freeman High School cheered me on as a leader by electing me class president all three years. My accountant father probably is the reason I majored in business at Washington and Lee University. Genes passed down to me from my Baptist grandfather are surely one reason I became a pastor.

My call to be a pastor started three years after college. I was working as a commercial lender for Wachovia Bank, and I thought I would go on to graduate business school and a career in business.  However, after being accepted into the MBA school of my choice, increasingly I felt unsettled about this direction.  I took a season to fast and pray, and the Spirit opened up for the first time the thought of seminary.  I went on to complete a Master of Divinity at Gordon-Conwell Seminary and a Ph.D. in pastoral theology at the University of Edinburgh, and I have been serving the church ever since!    

A particularly profound season of my life was journeying with my first wife Lacy to her death at age 31, after a terrible, horrible, long bout with cancer.  In the mystery of God, Lacy’s life and death helped make me the gospel ministry I am today.  In particular, Lacy’s journey helped me see that the most important question in life is, “What will we do about death?”  Five years later, I met Lisa, and we married November 22, 2008.  Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife, finds that which is good and receives favor from the Lord.” Lisa is definitely the right girl for me!  Also, in 2012, we received into our home Galyna, from Ukraine, who would become our adopted daughter.  Galyna and our grandson Marcelo live in San Diego, and we try to see them as often as we can!