I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where my family and I attended
First Presbyterian Church. After high school I attended Oklahoma State University
from 1976 to 1980, where I received a B.S. in Business Administration
with my major being in Finance.
After graduation I went to work for Standard Oil Company of Indiana in
Tulsa. I was hired as a Staff Assistant in the Accounts Receivable Department
where I worked almost three years. During that time I took computer programming
courses at Tulsa Community College.
In May of 1983 I left Standard Oil Company to attend Tulsa Community
College full-time where I earned an Associate Degree in Business Computer
Programming. I then took a job in Dallas as a programmer in 1984. It was
about a year and half later that I began to wrestle with spiritual matters.
I mentioned earlier that I grew up attending a Presbyterian Church. In the
fall of 1972, I went through the communicants’ class, made my profession of
faith and joined the church. However, the basis of my decision was that everyone
in my Sunday School class was doing this and that it was expected of me.
It did not come out of a love for God nor a commitment to Jesus Christ as my
Savior and Lord (although I did have an intellectual understanding of Jesus’
life, death, and resurrection).
After my move to Dallas, I started struggling with the temporal nature of
life and whether there really is anything of lasting significance to one’s time on
this earth. This anxiety came out of a context of a self-centered, hedonistic
lifestyle. Between Thanksgiving, 1985 and January, 1986, by God’s grace, I
truly embraced Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. I started attending Highland
Park Presbyterian Church.
In the providence of God, my faith grew and I became involved in the life of
the church.
I believe God used the above experiences, as well as many others, to prepare
me to respond to God’s call to become a minister of the Word and Sacrament.
In preparing to follow God’s call, I attended Austin Presbyterian Theological
Seminary where I received my Master of Divinity degree. In 2001, I
continued my theological education by entering Fuller Seminary’s Doctor of
Ministry Program, focusing on Christian Spirituality. I’ve completed the program
and will receive my degree in the near future.
In 1998 accepted a call to Covenant Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi
as their Associate Pastor. I served Covenant from July, 1998 through
June, 2005. In May of 2005, I accepted a call to become the Pastor of First
Presbyterian Church (FPC) in Humboldt, Tennessee. I have served at FPC
from July, 2005 to the present.
I am blessed to be married to Pam, my wife of eighteen years. We have
two teenage boys, Colin and Christopher, who keep us hopping and humble
and thankful.
“I am very much looking forward to serving with the people of Northwood.
It is an exciting congregation that is eager to serve people in the name of
Christ. Humbly I ask for God’s Spirit and mercy to bless this partnership in the
gospel.”
