My story.

If I can state the obvious, you don't need to know me to know God. You can skip this page if you want. But if I can tell what God has done for me, and how those experiences inform my faith perspective, I'm glad to tell the story.
I was raised in the Christian faith by two pastor's kids.

​Both grandfathers and two great grandfathers were pastors. I was a genuinely good kid with a tender conscience. I received a Christian education from kindergarten through high school. I was baptized as a young teen, and read my Bible every day throughout my teen years. I felt called to ministry in my young teens but didn't know what that meant. I assumed it had something to do with music and the Bible.

I met my future wife when I was 17. We were married at 19. At 21 I became a professional musician and began playing the nightclubs, believing I would be a light in a dark place. But instead, my light dimmed.
By age 25, my faith was fully compromised, and my marriage was broken.

​But by God's grace, I came to the end of myself and, one day in May of 1992, I whispered "Jesus." I fell to my knees and began crying into my hands. The Holy Spirit washed over me and freed me from my bondage to sin. My heart turned around that day. I think of it as my spiritual awakening. This gives me faith for preaching the gospel. God heals broken hearts.

Our marriage was miraculously healed. Not entirely on that day. We had to learn new ways of relating. But the healing began that day, and today, not only are we still married, we are each other's best friends. We have four adult children, two daughters-in-law, and five grandsons. God is good. This gives me faith for helping couples work through marital distress. God heals broken marriages.
With my spiritual awakening my call to the ministry was reawakened.

​We moved from Sarasota to Portland where I managed a family owned business while helping to plant a church. In 1999, the church hired me as its full time worship pastor where I served for ten and a half years. 

​During that time I felt God was calling me to serve someplace as a lead pastor, and I chose to be patient with his timing. Then, in 2009, we discerned that he was calling us back to Sarasota to pastor the church I was raised in, so we accepted that call. We led the church through many changes such as restructuring, reprogramming, restaffing, and rebranding. Some of it was done well and proved effective. I would do it again. But other things I learned the hard way. I enjoy when I get the chance to help others learn the easy way if I can.
In 2021 I realized that God was calling me away from the conventional church model.

​After 22 years of full time church ministry, I left the familiar to explore another way of being church! But rather than plant yet another new church for people to come to, I and a few others formed "X242" after Acts 2:42, our theme verse for how we are church.

Now I am now spending part of my time as X242's executive director and pastor-at-large, planting and connecting microchurches around the simple agreement of "one path, four devotions, and two loves." In addition to writing and teaching, I spiritual direction and pastoral counsel.
I have a special place in my heart for other pastors, and healing broken relationships.

Many pastors are isolated. There's no one they can safely talk to. I've been blessed to be part of a wonderful monthly gathering of local pastors and it's been life-giving to me. My hope is that now, as a "ministry veteran" who's no longer in the conventional church system, I might provide spiritual direction and counsel to pastors and ministry leaders as they work through the challenges and opportunities of ministry. This includes those who lead microchurches, both within the network I oversee, and anywhere Zoom reaches. 

​And, as stated above, I have faith for helping to heal relationships and people suffering from broken trust and betrayal. 

I'm always humbled that God might use my perspective to expand another's perspective. It's my joy to teach the way of Jesus and to foster faith and wisdom in the community of believers.