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Welcome to the Pastor’s Study!

I doubt there has ever been a more complicated time to be in church leadership.

We’ve been through a pandemic.

We’re navigating life in a digital world.

Society is increasingly atomized and hostile.

Ministry leaders are struggling. I know. I was one.

A little about me.

I’m an ordained Presbyterian minister who has served congregations in Nevada, Alabama, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.

I served as a transitional pastor for a small church during the height of COVID helping to navigate the loss of a pastor, the lockdown, a contested presidential election, civil unrest prompted by racial injustie, and all the ordinary mess that comes with church life.

I also served as a large church associate pastor while that congregation was between lead pastors and navigating departing its denomination with the acrimony and lawsuits that ensued.

I’m currently serving in publishing as an Acquisitions Director for Tyndale Bibles. Tyndale House Publishers is the publisher of the New Living Translation and is a division of Tyndale House Ministries, which exists to meet the spiritual needs of people primarily through the publication of material that is consistent with Biblical truth.

I love pastors and I love the church. And, at least for this season of my life, God has called me to serve pastors rather than serving a congregation.

I’m graduate of Samford University (B.A., Philosophy & Religion) and Beeson Divinity School (M.Div.). I’m in the process of pursuing doctoral studies in Historical Theology.

I live in Wheaton, Illinois with my wife, kids, and an energetic mini goldendoodle named Luna, and worship at Immanuel Presbyterian Church (EPC) where I co-teach High School Sunday School and co-lead a small group.

Posts

10 Best posts on culture

 

Here is a selection of posts that deal with culture and current events

To Wheaton’s cultured despisers 

“If social media is any indication there are many who call on Christ as Lord who also wish for nothing more than the discrediting of institutions like Wheaton.”

The white hot anger of a lover spurned

“These moves are the latest iterations of Gushee’s confrontation with evangelicalism, which has some of the characteristics of the white hot anger of a spurned lover about it.”

Four ways churches manage the gospel and culture tension

“As a result we live with a tension in deciding which parts of our message and faith are culturally-conditioned.”

How culture shapes us 

“It’s a worthwhile exercise to consider the desires that under gird the moral sentiments or policy proposals that get bandied around both on the campaign trail and other places equally seedy, social media sites.”

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

“Culture eats strategy.” This is an important reality for leaders to remember. At the end of the day, the culture of an organization is what will cause that organization to succeed or fail in its mission. Plan all you want. Put reporting requirements in place so that current realities can be used to forecast futures. All will be for naught unless the culture of the organization places value on the right things, and that comes through modeling from managers and senior leaders.

What does the flag represent?

“…[T]he offense of improperly displaying the flag or kneeling for the nation anthem has to be judged of a lesser kind than the offense of a legacy of oppression and president so willfully ignorant as to be unable to acknowledge this rather than encourage it.”

The scandal of the Ivy League mind

“Somehow, and I’m not really sure where it came from, in my first year in college I fell in love with learning. I majored in philosophy and religion because these subjects were entirely more enjoyable to me than the prospect of learning accounting. And things haven’t changed much since I left college. I hope they never do.”

Evangelical – What’s in a word?

“Personally, I am uncomfortable both with what passes for evangelical in our culture and also with abandoning the word. Why? This: if we do abandon the word, we will be ceding ground to the same cultural forces that won’t be satisfied by this move. It may well set the stage for future abdications.”

Critical race theory has its limits – “CRT offers insight into the experience of oppressed classes in American law and culture, including the church. At the same time, it is a perspective and its one that makes rather significant claims to be able deconstruct society, culture, and law. In many ways CRT is as “totalizing” as Marxism–a comprehensive understanding reality that is quasi-religious.”

The death of marriage – “Cheap sex, it seems, has a way of deadening religious impulses. It’s able to poke holes in the “sacred canopy” over the erotic instinct, to borrow the late Peter Berger’s term. Perhaps the increasing lack of religious affiliation among young adults is partly a consequence of widening trends in nonmarital sexual behavior among young Americans, in the wake of the expansion of pornography and other tech-enhanced sexual behaviors.”