Life Story

I grew up right here in the burbs of DFW. Ours was not a church-going household, and somewhere around third grade, a neighborhood family saw my need for Jesus and began inviting me to church with them. One day, I followed the crowd to the front during an altar call, repeated the “sinner’s prayer,” received a new Christian packet, and began reading the numerous pamphlets explaining how to live a good Christian life.

The next decade of my life was a roller coaster experience of trying and failing to fill out that checklist of what good Christians looked like. In my junior year of high school, God used an outreach ministry called Young Life and my desire to play football again to bring me out of a dark two-year period of drug and alcohol abuse. He led me to a tight-knit group of teammates being invested in by a young football coach. I began to realize and experience that falling in love with Jesus was far more transformative than attempting to master that Christian checklist.

I went to college with the idea of becoming the same kind of teacher/coach that impacted me so significantly, but I lost sight of that plan. By God’s astounding providence and kindness, I became a Young Life leader my last semester of college, and I continued as a volunteer after graduation. Six months into my “adult” life, I realized I had no desire to continue the career I had prepared for. Again, God provided a wise mentor and dear friend who invited me to consider full-time Young Life staff. Six months later, my new bride (and former junior high crush), Bethany, and I began our life of ministry together.

Though the last twenty-ish years have been filled with the joy of becoming genuine life partners and raising three beautiful children, our marriage has experienced sorrows: the difficult journey of understanding ourselves and each other more deeply, several miscarriages, the weariness of seminary studies, and parental failures. God, however, has remained faithful and kind through every up and down. In Bethany, He has fashioned a more excellent ministry partner than I could have imagined. I fall more in love with her every day and look forward to a lifetime of serving the kingdom alongside her if the Lord grants it.

Hope for The Village Church

My hope is that we would lean into our new identities in Christ as a family of worshipers, servants, learners, and witnesses to become whole disciples seeking to live out the gospel in every area and moment of our lives.