My Life

There are a number of important things taking place in my life right now.  The first and most important is my family.  My wife Pat and my son Kevin. We have enjoyed another winter, some snow would have been nice, but here in suburban Philadelphia it was not to be.

We are looking forward to another adventurous spring and summer.  Kevin will be 3 this fall.  It is hard to imagine.

Pat and I will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary this November.  We are planning a trip to celebrate, a cruise to Canada, leaving from Boston and going to Montreal. 

I hope to do some sailing this summer, it has been a while since I’ve had the sunfish in the water.  It needs some work but, it will be good spend some time on the lake again.  An ongoing task has been some upgrades and repairs to our home.  We’ve got a few projects planned for the summer.  I’m not sure what all we will end up doing.

I am the Senior Pastor at Philadelphia First Church of the Brethren.  I have been pastoring there for about ten years.  In that time I have been working toward a Doctor of Ministry degree at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield Pa.  It has been a good journey and if all goes as planed I will graduate in May of 2009. 

A little about my educational and professional history:

Before I finished my High School days, at Forest Hills High School in Sidman, PA, I was licensed to the ministry by the Pike Run Church of the Brethren in Somerset Pa in May of 1987.  The fall of 1987 found me in Bridgewater Va.

I spent my undergraduate years at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater VA.  Bridgewater is a small private college that has a historical relationship with the Church of the Brethren.  I was a Religion and Philosophy major.  I graduated in 1991.  I spent a few years after that pastoring two churches in central Pennsylvania, Yellow Creek and Bethel.

I began pastoring the Beech Grove Church of the Brethren in Hollansburg Ohio in January of 1994.  In September of 1994 I began a Masters program at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Indiana.  I finished my Masters of Divinity in May of 1998.  And was ordained to the ministry in the church of the Brethren.

In January of 1999 I began serving as the Pastor of the Philadelphia First Church of the Brethren.  In 2002 I began a Doctoral program at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pa, I will graduate this spring the focus of my work has been one small groups spiritual formation.