Biography

I was born in Los Angeles, CA into a pastor’s family. I pretty much lived church; and from early on I thought I wanted to work at a church. After high school and some bible college, the Lord opened the doors into youth ministry at my home church (Cupertino, CA) and that’s when the light bulbs really started going off. I was serving with a good friend and we were seeing huge growth in the ministry (400%).

In 1995 I got married and right after we finished college the high school pastor left the church so we put our seminary plans on hold and transitioned into the high school ministry on an interim basis. In 1998 we moved to Dallas to attend Dallas Theological Seminary and the Lord gave us our first daughter (Carissa). The first years of seminary were crazy. I was working full time and schooling full time. Yet in His timing, the Lord led us to a unique ministry opportunity that combined my geek side with my children’s ministry upbringing. I joined the staff of Northwest Bible Church doing their IT and Elementary age ministry. I was hired as an intern, but within six weeks I was assistant children’s ministry pastor. This turned my already crazy life into warp speed. I know that I learned more about my own ministry skills amidst the insanity of performing two what-should-be full time jobs, attending school full-time and being a husband and father, but I couldn’t keep that pace up for much longer when the church hired a full time IT director and I became the Elementary age minister full time. That year the Lord added a second daughter (Alicia) to our family. Soon the Lord opened the doors to youth ministry at Northwest. I jumped at the chance and I decided to take seminary at a little slower pace and enjoy the fun of junior high ministry and a young family. The Lord added Samuel to our family and we enjoyed the final years of seminary at a much healthier pace.

After seminary we returned to our home state and took a job as youth pastor at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church in Sacramento. Originally I was hired to oversee the college and junior high pastor and do hands on High school, but budget cuts removed 5 staff from our department and I found myself doing college/young adult and high school. Even though the pace was busy, I was able to take more time with my family and really deepening my hobby which is screen writing. I have made at least one hundred videos for youth ministry, and I decided one year to write a feature length script. It was a huge learning curve, but its a hobby I thoroughly enjoy. Life in Fair Oaks had its difficulty (namely that the church is withering) but in this time I have learned more than I think I learned in seminary. Mostly from meeting very diverse people, reading books on missional-modernity-emergence, and utilizing the freedom to create fresh new spiritual disciplines and worship habits for myself, my peers, and those within my ministry.

In the last few months we added our fourth child (Emet) to the family and I’ve renewed my geeky side creating websites and making videos. The picture on this page was taken at Burning Man, where we took a missions team and learned some very powerful lessons. It is a time of refreshment. We love being a young family and we’re full of joy looking forward to wherever the Lord leads.