Personal Story:

I am a Christ follower, the husband to an amazing woman, the father to four beautiful daughters, and a minister. I put them in this order not so you will see how spiritual I am, rather I place them in this order to remind myself. I am in need of constant reminder of where my priorities should lie.  I accepted Christ when I was eight years old as Buckaroo in Royal Rangers, which is the boys program in the Assemblies of God. I grew up attending an Assemblies of God Church in western Colorado. I grew up knowing that God had a purpose for my life. I am fully committed to knowing, serving, and following Jesus. I try to live my life in light of what God did through Jesus. Melodie and I met in youth group at our Church. We dated for a year and got married in December 2001l. I won’t pretend that it has always been easy being married and starting a family at such a young age, but it has been worth it. I am more in love with my wife today than ever. I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing wife. In March of 2002 we started leading the Youth ministry that we grew up in. We served the church as the youth director/pastor for three and a half years. We had our first daughter three months after our first wedding anniversary in 2003. Julia is strong willed, outgoing, brilliant and beautiful. We butt heads both being the oldest, but she loves me and that never ceases to amaze me. Sarah came along in 2005 two years and two days after Julia was born. Sarah is my messy, boogie dancing, goldie lock, beautiful daughter. She gets bossed around by Julia’s natural leadership abilities. She is loving compassionate and sensitive. In 2005 we moved to Springfield, Missouri so that I could attend Central Bible College. I majored in pastoral ministries. During this time I was challenged to grow and learn. My time at CBC was a challenging time financially, academically, and relationally, but life’s challenges are an opportunity for God to reveal his glory in your life. It was during this time that our third daughter came in to our lives. Anna was born in 2007. She is quiet till she gets to know you (like her dad), sweet , and mischievous. I love my family!

Personal Info:

(The blog entries will likely be about any of these topics)

• I love coffee. I mean I really love coffee. It’s not an addiction, honestly I can stop anytime… No, Really… The real question is why would I want to! It think I’ll go pull my self a shot!
• I am full of useless information. Some call this something else, but those people are rude and not very nice…
• My favorite punctuation mark is the ellipsis…
• I am a technoGeek. I read the rss feed for engadget’s website more than I read the news.
• I respect Apple products but I am not an Apple snob/fanboy even though I use a MacBook Pro
• I am not nearly as serious nor as quiet as you might think.
• I don’t watch sports. I don’t have a favorite team. I don’t know the rules to any sport so if a conversation starts around me I end up very lost.
• I love the mountains of Colorado. There are days that I long to be standing in a mountain stream fishing for trout! I am grateful to be back in this beautiful state!
• I never bring my cars to the mechanic. I have worked on my own cars since I was 16. This does not mean I like it.
• I have played the Guitar since I was 14. I am not nearly as good as I should be having played for this long.
• I love reading a good novel. I love those books that you sit down to read in the morning and look up and its dinner time.
• I worked as a carpenter for close to ten years. I have done it all. Foundations to roofing and everything in between.
• When I was in middle school I wanted to be a dog-sled racer! Don’t laugh, its not funny… I read almost everything that Gary Paulsen wrote. I still dream of getting lost in the mountains and living off the land.
• After I graduated from high school I went on a leadership training and discipleship trip called Euro Train. We went to London, Brussels, Zurich, and Paris.
• I dabble around with graphics design. I have done print projects that have been distributed nationally, unfortunately I can’t post the art work. I also designed the cover for a book. I have posted some of my personal projects over on my Design page.

Ministry:

In 2009 I received my credentials with the Assemblies of God. Aside from being a good husband and father, there is nothing in life I want more than to make a difference for the kingdom of God. I love serving the church. I have been involved with ministry since I was 13. I have known since my teenage years that I was called to serve God with my life. I am passionate about helping people truly live for Christ. I think its important to not only tell people to live for Christ, but as a minister I must show them how to do this. Discipleship is so important. I think that there is something immoral about evangelism efforts that are not tied to genuine discipleship efforts. Jesus did not call his followers to get people to pray the sinner’s prayer, but rather to make disciples. Discipleship requires Christians who are willing to journey together just as Jesus’ own disciples did. Ministry must not be about merely improving life, but rather helping people know and become more like Christ.

Ministry Philosophy:

While there is not one recipe for ministry success, my personal ministry values are as follows: integrity, longevity, loyalty, excellence, authenticity and spirituality. Let me explain what I mean by each of these values:

• Integrity is so important in ministry. Growing up I saw youth pastors fall all around me. When this happens it devastates those people the minister was called to serve. Integrity is not only a moral issue however. It is important to maintain, moral, intellectual, and doctrinal integrity. This is the essence of the message Paul gave to his protégé Timothy in both of his letters.
• I believe that for any ministry to be effective it must have longevity. For relationships to be developed and trust to be built you must have longevity. I am committed to serve for the long haul. I do not view any ministry role as a stepping stone to greater things.
• With longevity you must have loyalty, it is impossible to serve in any leadership position for a long time if you are disloyal. Disloyalty cripples ministers. It takes maturity to be loyal in all situations.
• I see so many churches expending great efforts to merely maintain programs that have no direct connection with the vision of the church. I would rather do a few things with excellence than many things poorly or even adequately. The things that a church devotes resources and energy to should flow from its vision and be done with excellence. This may mean that there are some things that just do not get done. As a part time youth pastor in a small church I made the decision that I would focus my efforts on the most important things. I committed to maintain excellence in worship and preaching. I saw great fruit in this commitment as I focused my attention on what mattered.
• There is often a disconnect between the pew and the pulpit because people don’t see the pastor as a real person. I have found that I am most effective in ministry when I am most true to my God given personality. However, this does not mean that I am unwilling to adapt and grow. This means that it is very important to know who you are as an individual. It is important to be honest about your strengths as well as your weaknesses.
• There are a lot of things that I don’t mean by spirituality, but I do mean, that ministry is not just a profession. It is a faith endeavor that requires an authentic relationship with Jesus. When we are judged we will not be commended merely on the merit of the things we have done, but on whether we are known by our Savior. It is so important to maintain an integrated spirituality. Faith must be integrated into all aspects of life.