who we are

I have given my life over to work of ministry: a calling I do not take lightly, for it has unquestionably altered the trajectory of my entire life. I began full-time vocational ministry in 2006, and my wife and I have been through a refining fire ever since. Everything from spiritual attacks and financial hardship to pressure from within church leadership tempted us to walk away from God’s plan. And yet, our resolve remained undaunted. I even went through a season when I wrestled with my calling. But God very patiently used that time to show me that my calling to the work of ministry is for life; and it is irrevocable. I have no personal agenda other than Jesus and allowing him to accomplish part of his mission in the world through me. What a privilege!

My personal motto is "Pursuing a pure and simple devotion to Christ" (from 2 Cor. 11:2-3). We are called to love God and love others, not over-complicate it. Yet, we so often do because it is easier to follow a man, and man-made structures, than it is to genuinely follow Jesus. This is one of the reasons why Jesus repeatedly went after the religious leaders, who specialized in missing the point. For me, the "point" is—and always will be—Jesus. When we fall into the deceptive trap of church busyness instead, that’s a cheap substitute for authentic community.

My theology is simple and can be summarized in one word: Jesus. Everyone needs Jesus. As stated in Colossians 1:15-20,

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Many modern church leaders teach that the local church is the hope of the world. In contrast, I believe that Jesus is the hope of the world, and the local church is the primary—but not the only—vehicle that Jesus works through to accomplish his purposes. The mission is not ours, but God's. The local church is not the goal, but rather a group pursuing the goal together. The local church is the means to an end but was never meant to be the end in itself. If we make the church the center, it can feed its own form of idolatry and help rationalize all sorts of abuse. It can also focus us inward to our own way of doing church and denominational preferences as the only way to do things.

Although my theology is primarily Christocentric rather than ecclesiocentric, the church is the Body of Christ and the embodiment of his mission. Christ can only be fully known and fully expressed within the context of community. There is no such thing as "Lone Ranger" Christianity, since spiritual formation is a communal activity. The church is the primary vehicle for Christians to live out the “one-anothers” found throughout the New Testament. We each need to walk out the Christian life alongside other believers, and we need to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus's mission in the world – allowing God's love to fill us so that we can, in turn, love our neighbors. These are real people whose only opportunity to meet God may be meeting him at work in the lives of God’s people.

I have a high regard for, and obedience to, the Bible as the ultimate authority. Any theology which necessitates that God’s Word must take a back seat is not good theology. One thing that first attracted me to the Vineyard movement was that they took the Bible at face value. They did not add to the Bible, with unnecessary man-made legalism. Nor did they take away from what is in the Bible. Unfortunately, that was not always my experience in some other churches.

The term “evangelical” has, unfortunately, been dragged through the mud of politics. But that’s not what the term means. “Evangelical” is derived from the Greek word euangelion, meaning “the good news” or the “gospel” that our world so desperately needs. The evangelical faith focuses on the good news of salvation brought for sinners, saved by grace alone, through Jesus Christ. Evangelicals represent a diverse group, including believers found in many nations, churches, and denominations – bringing together Reformed, Holiness, Anabaptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and other traditions. Our core theological convictions provide unity in the midst of our diversity. 

Yet, my own personal experience has proven that some are too quick to use what Paul G. Hiebert first called a bounded set theory: where either people are in, or they are out. The “real” Christians are those people who look like me, act like me, dress like me, and even use the same version of the Bible. Those who do not follow the correct pattern fall outside the boundary and are not “real” Christians. And there is little expectation for growth if you are already "in" with your ticket punched. Pray a prayer and you're done, setting up a passive decision-based Christianity rather than an active walk of faith that requires a person to actually follow Jesus. In contrast, centered-set theory conveys that we are all continually moving toward—or away from—Jesus. It frees us as leaders to walk alongside people as they move toward Jesus – one step at a time. One of my primary life’s goals, and certainly the goal of my preaching, is to help all people move closer to Jesus so they make a decision to follow him and then grow into the abundant life he offers.

In John 17:20-23, Jesus prayed to the Father for unity in the church, so that the world may know God’s love. This unanswered prayer has kept me awake at night. As George Eldon Ladd points out in A Theology of the New Testament: “The unity for which Christ prayed cannot be altogether relegated to an invisible, spiritual realm; it is to be so visible that it will be a witness to the world of Jesus’ divine origin.” Yet, countless denominations have formed around every subtle difference that people can devise – everything from how individuals dress to when the church should meet to hair-splitting nuances of theology that the vast majority of people do not even try to understand. I believe these divisions in the church grieve the heart of God. Jesus has a bride, not thousands of different brides. He is the head of the church, not some schizophrenic head split between thousands of different bodies. Furthermore, our God is too big to fit neatly within the delicate balance of a single theological construct.

It is a wonderful thing to celebrate the unique flavors of our theological traditions. After all, we are called to unity not uniformity. Our diversity is a beautiful thing. Yet, our identity must be rooted in Jesus first, not our denominational allegiances. If I am a follower of a denomination first, and a follower of Christ second, it is difficult to see that as anything but sectarian idolatry. If the words of Jesus in John 17:20-23 are not enough, Paul addresses the issue in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17; Christ has not been divided. Hence, if you cut me, I do not bleed a denomination. If you cut me, I bleed Jesus. 

As we gather around Jesus as our common core, we should work arm-in-arm for the advancement of God's mission in the world – meeting each group where they are so God may work through me to draw them closer to Jesus (1 Corinthians 3 and 9:20-22). When we all get to Heaven, there will not be a Baptist table, a Presbyterian table, or a Methodist table. We will all sit together, as one, at one table, in the presence of the ONE who unites us together.

Followers of Jesus are called to be salt and light in the world. We must stop pointing fingers at the darkness in the world and blaming everyone else for the world’s problems. A textbook definition of darkness is the absence of light. So where is the light? All too often, it is huddled together and hidden under a basket (Matthew 5:15). We need to engage in our culture and share the love of God with those around us.

Yet, we also must be cautious not to sacrifice Gospel resilience for cultural relevance; the Gospel has always been a counter-cultural force. In the Church’s race to be relevant, we have often sacrificed the one thing that has always been relevant: the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. A Gospel stripped of its truth is also a Gospel stripped of its power. As Lesslie Newbigin states in The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, “The relativism which is not willing to speak about truth but only about ‘what is true for me’ is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is a preliminary symptom of death.” Watering down our message for the sake of cultural relevance is not the answer. If we do not stand for something, we will fall for anything.

There are atheists who know countless facts from the Bible. They know a lot about God, but obviously do not personally know him. A preacher can fill your head with all sorts of information. However, if a message does not also affect your life after you walk out of the church building, then what is the point? Hence, my prayer is always that what I preach would not just be informational, but also transformational in people’s lives – outside the church walls, and after Sunday morning.

When asked to state the most important parts of the Old Testament Law, Jesus summarized all of it—volumes of rules and rituals—with the simple truth that we need to love God and love others. The Scriptures regarding our need to be filled with the knowledge of God, and to grow in the knowledge of God, are not about mere head knowledge (Colossians 1:9-14). This is not about assembling abstract facts about some distant deity. The goal is to know the living God, and walk in a personal, life-giving relationship with him. And then as his love fills us and overflows from us, we can in turn love others.

Many elements within the modern Western church have succumbed to consumer-oriented pressures, becoming entertainment-based, celebrity-driven country clubs for Christians. This is not the model that was provided for us by Jesus or the early church. Together, as the body of Christ, we must love one another, serve one another, encourage one another, teach one another, and help one another grow in our walks with God. A fundamental tenet of the Protestant Reformation was the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 1:5-9); I take that concept seriously.

Lisa and I have personally walked through seasons of serious health problems and financial hardships, yet our faith in the calling and goodness of God is unshakable. Although we would never ask to repeat either of Lisa’s life-threatening battles with cancer, nothing strengthened our relationship with the Lord more than those times. Suffering builds resilience in our faith. We have learned that God does not merely call the equipped; he equips the called. And he pays for what he orders. After all, our God is the creator of the heavens and the earth (Psalm 146:6, Isaiah 42:5); he is the God of the impossible, and the God of the details. Yet, if the nation of Israel could so quickly forget the miracles God worked on their behalf, then we also need to be sure to remember these truths as we continue to step forward in faithful obedience.

My background—both inside the church and out in the working world—is filled with a rich variety of experiences. My professional background helps me relate to the people in the pews. Furthermore, my varied church background has also proven to be quite an asset, given that our congregants come from many different Christian faiths. I grew up in an Episcopal Church, became a follower of Christ while attending a non-denominational church, served as a leader in a Baptist Church, and was ordained within the Association of Vineyard Churches. None of this was an accident, but rather a divinely orchestrated plan to mold and shape me so that God could work through me.

Jesus made it clear that we cannot bear fruit—in fact, we can do nothing of Kingdom significance—if we fail to maintain a close intimacy with him (John 15:1-8). He also modeled this for us, by seeking times of prayer and solitude to nurture his own relationship with the Father (Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16, 6:12). Yet so many fail to see the connection between an intimacy with God and our own spiritual health and fruitfulness in making disciples. 

Mark 1:35-39 provides a prime example. After a busy day of ministry, Jesus gets up early the next morning. Before anyone else is awake, he goes out to a solitary place where he can be alone with the Father. The disciples frantically hunt him down, and when they find him, they exclaim: “Everyone is looking for you!” This would sound very appealing to co-dependent pastors who are eager to please people. Yet, Jesus says: “No, let’s go somewhere else.” Through Jesus’s time of prayer, he is able to follow the direction he received from the Father rather than being tempted to change course for the sake of pleasing men. It is arrogant to suggest that Jesus needed this time with the Father, but somehow, we do not.

Much like Jesus, the effectiveness of my own ministry is based upon how I nurture my own relationship with the Lord: commissioned by God in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. As stated by J. Robert Clinton in The Making of a Leader, “Spiritual authority comes out of experience with God. A leader does not seek spiritual authority; a leader seeks to know God. … Ministry flows out of being” (145).

Jesus did not come start a new religion, but rather a revolution. Religion says that if you obey and follow the right rules and rituals in the right way, then God will love you. But God says that he has loved you in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

Religion says that as we love God and love others, our love will lead to God loving us; our repentance will lead to his kindness. But that’s not what God says: we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19), and his kindness will lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). I tell my children every night that I love them, and I always will, no matter what. My love for them is unconditional; it’s not dependent upon their adherence to my own man-made rules and rituals. Neither is God’s love for us.

We need to remember that it was the most religious people who had Jesus killed. When Jesus went to the lost and the broken to tell them that they were sinners, they agreed and fell at his feet in repentance. But when he did the same thing to the religious leaders, they accused him of being demonized, of stirring up the bad guys, of being an evildoer, and of breaking their rules. So they plotted to have him killed. That’s religion over relationship. 

Religion cares all about your pedigree: if you’ve done the right things, went to the right schools, said the right prayers. But God cares about your relationship with Him. The family tree of Jesus is filled with men and women from questionable backgrounds. That’s part of why God used them; they knew they were nothing without him. Relationship says it’s not about what you do, or don’t do; it’s about what Jesus has done. That’s what it’s all about. Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10). His way leads to freedom, joy, and peace.