About

Hi y’all.  There is much more to my story than a few paragraphs can describe.  But here goes.

I am a native of Dalton, GA, a great small town in NW Georgia. All my childhood was there, and I graduated from Dalton High in 1988. That year I met and started dating Lynn, who would become my wife in December 1994. I was a Boy Scout, reaching Eagle rank. Through that began my love of the outdoors. I played youth sports, then focused on tennis in High School. I made some great friends and learned great lessons in that.

I left for Duke University, and had great experiences and relationships in my campus ministry. There I first engaged in and saw the power of small group discipleship. Of course, I became one of the Cameron Crazies, and often watched the men’s Basketball team that went to the Final Four each year of my four.

The summer after I graduated, after an internship in D.C. in Congress, I entered seminary in South Carolina. I learned under some great men and women, and interned in a large church ministry to college and graduate students, which I loved.

I was ordained in that church in June 1995, just after starting my first pastoral job in Beech Island, SC.  Those years are treasured for what I learned about people, about ministering to them, and them to us.

While there, I felt teaching was my path.  As a result, I entered a PhD program in Louisville, KY in Fall 1999. With a 2-year-old in tow, we settled into that 4-year program.  It was a big transition, but with support of family, they were blessed years, including the birth of our 2^nd daughter.

After teaching Greek as an adjunct professor several semesters while writing my dissertation, I searched for faculty positions at a college. Nothing worked out for that.  It was then that the pull toward “home” was strong. Instead of continuing to search, we moved back to GA with our now 2 children and entered the business world in marketing.

The details of these last 17 years are way too many to recall.  But after these years of teaching others, preaching, raising children, and learning to live in community, I felt that writing was an outlet for the desires I had when I began my PhD work in Louisville. It’s not easy to learn a new discipline and the craft of writing certainly requires discipline and effort. But after many edits, I felt I had expressed what God put in my heart about His purpose for us, based on Creation. And after quite a few “no’s,” I found a publisher who was committed to me and this topic.  Now that work is in print, and I am excited to begin the journey as an author.

I have much more to learn about God’s truth, and I will spend the rest of my life learning. But I know this first book is an attempt to synthesize how I see God’s original design for mankind and the redemptive work God Himself undertakes to return us to that purpose once sin entered the world.  It is the greatest story ever told, and it’s a true story, the type of story most of us love even more.

Thanks for checking out the book and blogs.  I hope it helps you in your pursuit of Him.