My personal pilgrimage in the Christian faith is not unlike many others, I am sure. I was raised by godly Christian parents who introduced me to the Gospel at a young age. I trusted Jesus Christ, God's Son, who died and rose again for my sins, as my personal Savior at age six. I was baptized a short time thereafter in a Baptist church in West Virginia as a public confession of my faith in Christ alone for eternal life.

After moving numerous times to several cities and states, my family finally settled in Houston, Texas. My faith in the Lord grew significantly during my high school years thanks to the influence of my Christian family and a dynamic Bible-teaching pastor at my home church, Northwest Memorial Baptist Church in Houston, TX. I devoted my life to full-time Christian ministry in the summer of 1985.

In preparation for vocational ministry, I attended Houston Baptist University where I earned a B.A. degree in Spanish and Kinesiology in 1990. The Lord used a series of providential events during college to get my attention and help redirect my life toward ministry preparation. One of these providential events involved a legal crisis that resulted from sophomoric behavior with a group of teenagers in 1989. My immature actions led to charges of indecency being filed against me. Ultimately, by God's grace, the charges were dismissed after a period of deferred adjudication, leaving me with no criminal conviction. As He so often does, the Lord used this crisis in my life to mold me, and to teach me many life lessons (Prov 15:31). Most importantly, He used this experience to direct me to Dallas Theological Seminary in 1990. This was the fulfillment of a lifelong goal to attend the same seminary that had profoundly impacted my grandfather's life, a pastor himself.

During and after the completion of my Master of Theology degree at Dallas Seminary, I spent several years in pastoral ministry. Over the years God's hand of blessing has been evident in my ministry as I served in various pastorates in Illinois and Texas. In recent years, my ministry journey led me into the field of higher education. I spent six years teaching full-time at the Bible college level. Following the completion of my Ph.D. degree from Baptist Bible Seminary in 2007, I began teaching at the seminary level. Currently I serve as Professor of Theology and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Grace School of Theology in The Woodlands, TX. Additionally,I serve on the adjunct faculties of Luther Rice University and Baptist Bible College, and I am a National Conference Speaker for Logos Bible Software.

Wendy and I were married while I was attending Dallas Seminary in 1992. We live with our six children in Washington, Texas where we seek to foster a home and learning environment that makes God's grace and the gospel of our Lord central to all that we do. We spend regular time in prayer and in the Word as a means of discerning the Lord's will and cultivating spiritual growth and family harmony.