I was reared in the now famous town of McFarland, CA – and knew and appreciated coach Jim White [played by Kevin Costner in the movie McFarland USA]. It was there where I came to Christ at a Vacation Bible School, which my older brother’s friend persuaded us to go to when I was eight years old. After my brother and I professed faith in Christ, my mother followed several years later and then my dad several years after her. My oldest brother came to Christ last, and then grandparents and uncles and aunts followed. Christ did a wonderful work in my family.
My sophomore year in high school is when a bomb exploded in our house. My mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died my senior year in highschool, but not until her faith and strength in Christ and my dad’s love for her in the midst of cancer, convinced me that I needed to know the Christ of the Bible better. This influenced me to apply to Biola College, where I attended from 1969 to 1973. I graduated with a double major in Bible and Christian Education. This was a life transforming time for me. I was in CSF [California Scholarship Federation] in highschool, but had never fully applied myself to studies. At Biola I threw myself into my classes and graduated Magna Cum Laude and was selected to Who’s Who among College Students in America.
After working in a Christian Book Store and as a youth pastor for a year, I had a desire to learn more about God’s Word and particularly to teach God’s Word. I attended Talbot Theological Seminary from 1974 to 1978, earning a Master of Divinity Degree with a Practical Theology major.
Cindy and I were married in December of 1977, during one of the worst storms in the history of Bakersfield. It made the cover of National Geographic Magazine. I was called to pastor the church where I had served as youth pastor before attending seminary. During my four years away, this Conservative Baptist Church had gone through two pastors and was being served by an interim pastor when I arrived. During our four years at that church [1979-1983], Cindy and I were blessed with three children. It was a difficult church that required about a 70 hour work week. Two important lessons I learned is that I was not the energy bunny, and that my most fulfilling ministry was life on life with individuals who wanted to grow in Christ.
My next church was an Evangelical Free Church in a small town on the central coast of California. It was a delightful group of people, with a large college attendance from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. The congregation grew to where two morning services were required. It was during my time at this church that I studied my way out of Premillennial Eschatology and became an optimistic Amillennialist, also known as Postmillennialism. Although I maintained a deep respect for the Premillennial viewpoint, I could not stay at that church, which I had served for 7 years, since the Evangelical Free Denomination requires its pastors to be Premillennial without any mental reservations.
By that time Cindy and I had five children and the Lord directed us to the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, where Pastor Carr also holds his ordination. I then served as the senior pastor for the Vista Community Church for 10 years [1990-2000]. My next call was to Middletown New York, in a 4C’s Church which began in 1785. I was not a good match for this church. The New York culture was very different for me. After three years I accepted a call to Union Congregational Church, now Living Hope Church, where I have happily served for 11 years.
My five children have all married and have given Cindy and I ten grandchildren. I have been in pastoral ministry for about 37 years and believe that my best ministry is still ahead. I will not be able to be a senior pastor forever, but I plan to pastor in one way or another for many years to come.
I was not born into a Christian home. My dad was a pro football player and my mom faded from the Christian faith she knew as a kid. When she met my dad, who was not a believer, she was not practicing the faith. During my early years and into my teens I moved around a lot as my dad played and then coached NFL teams around the country, including the Bears – twice. There were times when my mom would get involved in a church and take me and my sister, but moving around so much was not conducive to a steady Christian church experience.
By the time I got to middle school I had lost any desire to attend church and my mother didn’t force the issue. This held true through my high school years as well. I do recall being touched by a Billy Graham movie when I was in 5th or 6th grade, but I did not respond to the gospel at that time. In high school I considered myself to be a good student/athlete and a good guy; however, this was just a veneer. Truth be told, I was a wretch underneath – selfish, mean to my little sister, dishonoring to my parents, a drunkard at times, addicted to my dad’s pornography, a liar, etc. Yet I thought myself a good person into my college years.
For my sophomore year I attended Marshall University in West Virginia. There I studied business and economics. I was also about 15 miles from my dad’s brother, Uncle Bob. In God’s sovereign plan I came under his Christian influence. He talked to me about my sin [and his] and our need for Christ. This happened over the course of several months in the fall of 1979. On December 2nd I attended church with my uncle and his family and there I heard many of the same things he talked to me about. During the service God began to convict me of my sin and my need for Christ. He opened my heart to the gospel, I believed and began my Christian journey that day. I was born December 1st, 1959. I was born again December 2nd, 1979. Praise God!
The next year I transferred to Wheaton College and finished my business & economics degree, but God called me to the ministry. During my senior year I worked as a student pastor at College Church in Wheaton. I graduated college in 1983, moved home to Denver and worked for a year. Then I attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL for 3+ years earning a MDiv. In 1986 I sought ministerial standing with the 4Cs and became a chaplain candidate in the U.S. Air Force. The year following my graduation from Trinity in 1987 I was ordained by College Church in Wheaton and in the 4Cs. I also became a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves in 1989.
I married my amazing wife Priscilla in 1992. We have five children whom we have tried to raise in the Christian faith.
I was born into a very tumultuous and painful childhood. Before 7th grade, I moved over a dozen times, missed most of 3rd and 4th grade and experienced several remarriages and divorces of parents and stepparents. Yet through this constant turmoil, God was gracious in slowing life down at providential moments.
One of those moments was in Kindergarten, when I attended an Awana club and heard a clear gospel message one evening. I remember thinking that what I heard was true--that I believe Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. God gave the gift of a childlike faith, and I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit sustained me through childhood.
Life slowed down once again starting in 7th grade as I was able to attend the same school system and church through high school. Megan and I met in high school and began dating our Senior year. God used a very strong youth group to mature my faith through my teenage years. When I graduated, I was baptized before going to college.
Megan and I continued dating through college and married after we graduated. I started work at a financial company in Chicago as a programmer, then changed jobs to Fox River Financial Resources a year later. I have worked for that same company since, though it has been bought most recently by FIS. While that job has been the same, our family has gone through several other changes since then.
Not long after starting the new job, Whitney was born to us, and she is our oldest at 11 years old. We began attending Christ the King church when she was an infant, and that church was a blessing to our whole family. Megan and I have been a part of the music ministry for nearly the entire time we attended.
While dating, Megan and I developed a heart to adopt, and it was a blessing to have the privilege to do that. In 2007, we began the process of adoption, and in 2009, two year old Simeon joined our family from Taiwan (he’s 10 now). It has been a bigger blessing to love and raise this boy and see so many gospel parallels to God’s adoption of us as his children in Christ. The theology of adoption encouraged us to adopt children, but adopting children has given us a deeper understanding and appreciation of what God has done for us in His Son.
Since then, Elie (7 years old) was born to us, and we adopted Ruby (5 years old) at birth in 2011 from Tennessee, and finally adopted Judah shortly after birth in 2015 from South Carolina. Judah is two years old now, and both of our boys have Christmas birthdays. Our children are a great joy and we cherish them dearly.
In my time at CtK, God has placed a desire and calling to shepherd the flock on my heart (1 Pet 5:12). In an evening reminiscent of how God changed my heart at Awana so many years ago, I sensed a new change to serve the church in the ministry of the Word and prayer (Jer 20:9). Within a few months of that evening, the church affirmed that calling and I’ve served as elder for six years.
As we merge, it has struck me that there are some who have been a part of this congregation longer that I’ve been alive. But I am very excited that with any and all differences, we share one Lord, one faith, and can worship and grow in the gospel together. I’m looking forward to the road ahead with you.
I was born into a Christian home in Wheaton, IL and came to know Christ as a young man. I enjoyed the blessing of an extended family filled with Christians who modeled for me a living faith in Jesus. My father’s Dutch heritage and my mother’s Scandinavian roots were strongly rooted in the Christian faith and focused on loving God and your family. Both sides of my family made church a priority, so as I grew up, the local church was part of my life continually. God used this environment of family and church to establish my faith during the formative years of my childhood. I cannot remember a time when I did not know that Jesus was Lord. Knowing and loving God were bedrock realities of my growing up years.
I attended the public schools in Wheaton and kept busy with my involvement in all sorts of sports, school groups, and church activities. After graduating from Wheaton-Warrenville South High School I attended Hope College in Holland, MI to study business and French. I spent a semester abroad studying in Dijon, France. In France, God began to deepen my faith in a way that I had never known. As a young man in a foreign country I was beginning to make my own decisions and find my own way in the world. I began to read the Bible and understand the Christian life with greater intensity and devotion. The faith I had as a child began to mature and take deep root into my life. The truth of the gospel came alive in my heart and mind in fresh ways.
Upon graduating from college, I worked at the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Stock Exchange for a few years. But I lacked joy, fulfillment and purpose in my job. God was stirring a restlessness in my soul and I began to sense that God was calling me to consider full-time ministry in the local church. Through a number of different events and circumstances, God led me to quit my job. I began working part-time with the Youth Ministry at College Church in Wheaton while also working part-time for a financial company. This position was a great opportunity to gain practical experience serving in the local church. It was also where I met Ken Carr and began to hear about the church plant that he was leading in Batavia. After working at College Church for a couple years, I was asked to work at Christ the King as an intern working with the Youth Ministry. I served in that capacity for three years before I was asked to be the Associate Pastor in April 2007. In 2017, when Christ the King Church merged with Union Congregational Church in North Aurora to form Living Hope Church, I joined the merged congregation to continue my role as an Associate Pastor.
Kathy and I live in Batavia and have been married for 20 years. We have five children - Luke (18) attends Taylor University, Lindsay (17) and Kyle (15) attend Wheaton Academy and my two youngest – Kate (13) and Kristen (10) – are homeschooled.
I was born on April 27, 1973 and lived in small town Indiana most of my early life. I was born the son of a minister, which has made the church a central part of my life. I can still remember the church we attended and the parsonage we lived in during those early years of my life. When I think back upon it, I believe I really had a happy early childhood.
When I was approaching 5 years old, my mom and dad got a divorce. Because I was so young, I don’t think I really understood much about what was going on mentally. But the divorce surely took its toll on me emotionally. We ended up moving to a new small town in Indiana (Peru) and I lived with my mother. In my eyes my mother was a rock and fortress to run to. Even to this day, my mom means a great deal to me, as she has always supported and cared for me like no one else.
I went to a Lutheran school from kindergarten to eighth grade, which continued the importance of church and religion in my life. However, my religious experience was mostly educational and not experiential. I knew the answers to the questions and that got me in good with the teachers. And at that age, doing well in school meant that you were accepted by adults and peers, and this was great to fill my need for acceptance. So I did other things—like played sports, began to play piano, and learned the current lingo of my age group—all in the attempt to be accepted. This created a drive to always perform well in what I did. Good performance usually meant acceptance, so I drove myself hard, and in the process, I gained my love for music and basketball.
When I went into high school I went to the public high school, which was out of my Christian school environment. I was now out of my element, and a whole wave of insecurity came over me. I needed to be accepted, and I was going to do anything I needed to be liked by all. I became a complete people- pleaser, trying to be liked by everyone.
I went to Butler University in Indianapolis and majored in music theory and composition. As I started college, it was a similar scene to my early high school days—always trying to please others to be accepted. That pattern has been very similar throughout my life and still is a great temptation for me today.
While in college I gained some exceptionally great friends. During my sophomore year, I noticed changes in their lives. I concluded that it had to do with their involvement with Campus Crusade for Christ. They asked me to attend as well, but I wasn’t interested at first. When they asked if I could play the piano for the meetings, that peaked my interest, so I went and played. As I heard the Good News and I talked with and watched my friends lives, I began to understand that I really wasn’t living a Christian life at all (even though I thought I was). I accepted Christ into my life and my life has never been the same. My life didn’t change over night, but I definitely began to change. Most noticeably was a subtle change in my goals for life. God really began to change my direction in life.
As I began to grow in my relationship to Christ, I was led to go on a summer missions project with Campus Crusade for Christ. This trip was to the Middle East, and it was a life-changing experience which began to broaden my perspectives.
Although I loved the summer project, I told myself after I came back that I wouldn’t do that again. Never say never to God! The year after I graduated from college I went back to the Middle East for a second time, but this time for a full year.
I shared the gospel every day. I prayed every day. I was involved in ministry every day. It was hard, but I loved it. God had sufficiently con- vinced me that I should go into the ministry.
Before I continue with the story, I need to back up a bit. During my senior year in college, before I went on my year to the Middle East, I met Cyn- thia. We started dating and took a liking to each other. When it came to me going away for a year, we decided to stay together and see what happened. We made it through, and we learned the true meaning of faithfulness. Shortly after I returned from the Middle East I asked Cynthia to marry me, and she accepted.
We were now engaged and we were ready to go on to the next stage of our lives together: moving to Trinity Seminary. During that time, I found a church home. I had a long-time friend who invited me to the church where he was on staff. I visited and was drawn immediately to the ministry there. The church ended up hiring me part-time at first and eventually full-time. For the final four years of my ministry at Bridgeway I was the Senior Pastor of the church.
Without a doubt a major life-changing event for me was my marriage to Cynthia in 1997. She is the love of my life. God has also blessed me with two wonderful sons, Cam (21) and Caleb (16). It is amazing how God has worked into my life certain things that have made me what I am. I’m thankful for all of it, and I desire to continue to improve on my weaknesses and tap into my strengths my whole life. I am an ongoing project. May God use me for His glory!