My Faith Story:

When I was nine years old, I recited the SinnersPrayer™ after reading one of those “scare-the-hell-out-of-you” tracts, complete with depictions of a lake of fire and a beast with seven heads and hordes of unrepentant wicked being thrown into the flames. The wicked were so smugly depicted as the bad guys (à la Jack Chick) and I sure didn’t want to be on their team. Simply put, I got saved for the fire insurance.

My faith journey started by simply saying “saved,” but over two decades of belief and doubt and conviction and despair, I’ve found that apprenticeship to the teacher is not as simple as clicking a box marked “saved” for a status-update, but is instead a daily determination made by someone who hears the words “come, and follow Me.”

My Ministry:
In the context of small groups or at lunch with an old friend, at late night games or in spirited theological discourse, I am called to practice the way of Jesus by following and serving, rather than leading. I’ve led worship, led Bible studies, gone overseas on those starry-eyed missions trips, but I eventually discovered that living a simple life of laity seems to be my “ministry.”

What I Believe:

Jesus is King and God.

My allegiance is not to a flag or some dirt or to a book or a church, but to the revolutionary paradox of a non-violent, enemy-loving servant-king, who became a conqueror not by the sword or by dealing out death to his enemies, but instead by conquering death itself. His law is love, and his judgment is mercy.

There is no king but Christ.