MINISTRY EXPERIENCE

Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, OH. Transitional Pastor, 2023 - present.

I am currently serving a church during a pastoral transition on a contract focused on the five tasks of interim ministry following a pastoral departure. MAPC is an urban, progressive congregation.

First Presbyterian Church, Middletown, OH. Pastor/Head of Staff, 2015 – 2022.

 I recently served First Presbyterian Church in Middletown, OH, which is in a city defined by its steel mill. The community has been through rapid changes—being identified as one of America quickest dying cities by Forbes Magazine in 2008 and more recently identified as a city on the rebound. These questions of identity and vitality are shared by the congregation. I worked with the congregation to better equip its church councils for a deeper practice of shared ministry, become more outward looking, and articulate a clearer sense of their own identity and purpose. You can listen to a podcast that highlights some of the work that I have helped lead at https://disruptingministry.transistor.fm/episodes/central-avenue-middletown

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC. Pastor, 2011 – 2015.

My first call was to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Asheville, NC. It was a challenging call to a congregation with an uncertain future. After forty years of declining membership, thirty members of Westminster decided to “go all in” and call a full-time pastor for the first time in twenty years. They wanted to use their resources for ministry, even if it meant closing sooner than they would like. We successfully extended the life of the congregation with the hope of revitalization, however it remained unsustainable. Through my leadership, the congregation intentionally left a lasting legacy. The Journal for Parish Clergy published an article on my experience that can be read here.

First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn. Brooklyn, NY. Interim Youth and Families Director, 2010 – 2011.

First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn is a wonderful multi-cultural congregation in Brooklyn Heights. I served as an Interim Youth and Families Director during a time of transition in the congregation. My responsibilities included the confirmation class and supervision of the children’s ministry.

Seminary Field Education, 2007-2010.

I served as a student minister at Brick Presbyterian Church, ministry intern at Second Presbyterian Church in New York City, and an intern of summer ministries for the Presbytery of New York City. I also completed a unit of CPE at Roosevelt Hospital (now Mt. Sinai) in New York City.

Maryville College, Maryville, TN. Director of Operations for the Initiative on Vocation, 2006 & Coordinator for Service, Mission, & Vocation, 2006 – 2007.

Before graduating from Maryville College, I was offered a job to manage a grant worth nearly $1.5 million from the Lilly Endowment for the theological exploration of vocation. I focused on administrative tasks and successfully re-wrote parts of the grant to retain funds for student scholarships. My job was eventually merged with a position in campus ministry, where I worked with student faith organizations and helped coordinate the Bonner Scholar program.

EDUCATION

Doctorate of Ministry (Student), Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Focus: Creative Writing & Public Theology

Master of Divinity, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

Focus: Systematic Theology

Awards: William Hudnut Award for excellence in the preparation of the preaching ministry

Bachelor of Arts, Maryville College, Maryville, TN.

Major: English

Awards: Outstanding Senior Award Finalist, Outstanding Junior Award Recipient, Charles Ensign Religious Service Award

Service to the Church

2020: Commissioner to the 224th General Assembly, PC(USA)

2017 - 2022: Committee on the Preparation of Ministry, (Moderator, 2019 - 2022)

2017 - 2018:        Executive Presbyter Search Committee, Vice Chair, Presbytery of Miami Valley

2016 - 2017:        Transition Visioning Team, Presbytery of the Miami Valley

2012 - 2017:        Board of Church Visitors, Maryville College

2013 - 2015:        Board of Directors, Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministries

2013 - 2014:  Chair of Administrative Commission to Cullowhee Presbyterian Church

STATEMENT OF FAITH

One word is at the heart of the Christian faith: With.  

The triune God, while a holy mystery, makes one thing clear to me: God is always with.

God yearns to be with so much so that God created the heavens and the earth. God is sovereign over all creation and the ruler of the universe. This God chooses to be with us, like a father who runs to welcome a prodigal home or a mother who will not forsake her nursing child.

The same Spirit that moved over the waters of creation filled Peter and the apostles at Pentecost. That same Spirit that is with us today. This Spirit empowers and guides all that we do, prays without ceasing, and sustains all things as the breath of God. Apart from—or “without”—this Spirit, we can do nothing.

Immanuel, which means “God is with us,” is a name given for Jesus at his birth. Jesus reveals God to us and what it means to be truly human. Jesus chose to be with people indiscriminately. But we find something disconcerting about this promise. Instead of trusting that God is with us, we try to be God. This is called sin. This leads us to imagine a world “without” God, and Christ was crucified, dead, and buried. Even then, God chose to be with us by forgiving us. Sin and death cannot contain Christ.

We know Jesus is alive because a group of women were with him all the way to the tomb, and they told us. It is important to stay with, even in the valley of the shadow of death. These women were the first preachers of the Word with this simple sermon: He is risen. Jesus—the Word of God—is witnessed to in scripture without parallel and through the Holy Spirit’s ongoing ministry of proclamation today.

This story is told and re-told not just in Word, but also in two sacraments. In baptism, we make a startling realization: God is not just with us, but we are with God. We love God because God was first with us. We join with the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit. At the Lord’s Supper, we receive the real presence of Christ. This is not just a memorial meal, rather we are nourished by Christ’s own body to be the body of Christ in the world. We are bound to be with believers in every time and place.

And we, the body of Christ, learn to be with one another. This is called Church. We are with one another because God was first with us. In a world full of division and enmity, loneliness and despair, the Church is with the poor, oppressed, hungry, mournful, forgotten and dispossessed. We don’t know how to fix these things, but for some peculiar reason being with one another brings the redeeming hope of Christ. I call this faith. Jesus brings healing, reconciliation, and wholeness.

I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow; today brings enough worries of its own. But I do pray, along with the church, that Christ comes again. This creates a disposition of hope, peace, joy, and love for today. There is no reason to fear because, as Jesus said, “I’m with you always until the end of the age.”

Did I mention with is synonymous with love?