All About Me
The short synopsis of my life is that I'm just a kid from the trailer park, who fell in love with Jesus. It's humbling that God would use me to empower others. I don't ever want to take that for granted. Along with my wife, Julie, and my sons, we live an incredible life together.
The slightly longer version of my story is that I grew up in North Texas. I was born to a couple of kids just 16 and 18 year old. After their divorce, I struggled with identity and purpose. The one blessing of that time period was that we went to church. I had never been to church. The building felt foreign; the people were ancient. I pulled my hands in close and tried not to touch anything. Still, at that little chapel in the country I met some of the most loving people of my life. I wondered why they were so different? I now know it was because of Jesus. I gave my life to Jesus at the age of 12 after realizing that He died to reconcile me to God. That's when I made Jesus the Lord of my life. This is also when my path got really interesting.
In those early teenage years, I had a bad (or good perhaps) case of the "yeses." Whatever the church needed, I readily agreed to. I ran their sound, taught children, led music, and much more. This went on until around the age of 20. As I finished my degrees, that little church asked me to fill in as preacher. I said "yes."
This is when I felt called to ministry. I'd rather tell you about God's incredible grace, but I suppose I should include that in those years I finished a degree in psychology, one in sociology, and then advanced degrees in Marriage and Family Counseling and Christian Education. The more important bit though is that I was able to help run a youth ministry, lead music at my church in Fort Worth, and even teach. At this church on Hulen Street, I learned of my passion for multi-ethnic ministry. I suppose if you look at my family, you'd see a picture of what God has done in me.
After seminary, we moved to St. Louis, Missouri to help lead a church. This would be our home for more than a decade. While in this role, I build a youth program, grew a music ministry, taught, led, and I went back to school to earn a doctorate in multi-ethnic church studies. This led us to our current venture. God called us closer to the city of St. Louis to revitalize a church body into the DNA of the area and under the direction of the Spirit. I currently serve as lead pastor of Remix Church.
