Ever since I was 18 years old, I knew that my heart and calling are deeply connected to facilitating spiritual community and the care and development of God’s people. Over the years, this calling has been expressed in many different ways, but it still remains core to who I am. 

An early expression came as a short term missionary in Australia with Cru to university students right after college. I then spent the next several years in seminary with the intent of being a pastor. I’m so grateful that much of my seminary training extended beyond academics and included things like silent retreats, my own personal therapy, full courses designed to help me understand my own story and own faith development, process groups with classmates, and receiving spiritual direction. My seminary training was certainly valuable for preparing me for ministry, but it was even more valuable for my own personal growth and relationships with God and others. 

During my seminary years, I worked at a local Christian high school with roles in the missions program, helping facilitate chapels, overseeing campus-wide student programming, and also supporting various student leadership teams. What began as a way to support myself in seminary became a place of rich relationships with students and staff and a place to shepherd students while serving alongside them locally and globally. I was privileged to help lead almost 30 mission trips over 9 years, and those experiences from all over the world taught me many things, but what I hold most dearly is the joy of seeing and being part of God transforming the lives of students as they stepped out in faith.

It came later than I would have anticipated, but eventually God called me into pastoring at a local church. For me, there is nothing like getting to walk with God’s people, individually and corporately, over the long haul. It’s a sacred privilege to be allowed into the heart and story of another, and it’s a sacred privilege to help lead a church body towards all that God is offering. 

After 5 years of serving as the Pastor for Life Groups and Men’s Ministry, I felt the unexpected call into a new journey with The Open Table. This call came with significant financial and career risk, but I knew it also came with the opportunity to invest even more into the care and development of souls. It also came with an opportunity to trust and rely on God in ways that I never had previously. Serving as the Director of Operations and as an Individual Care and Development Consultant, I get the sacred responsibility to help seek God’s vision and guidance for our organization, to share in setting a culture of willingness to follow God (personally and organizationally) however He leads, and to shepherd staff and community members as we all seek deeper levels of healing and freedom. 

I am immensely blessed with my wife, Elizabeth, and three kids.