I grew up in the middle of a cotton field in West Texas about thirty miles Southeast of San Angelo.  My little sister and I attended school in the little town of Wall, Texas.  Today, that town has grown into somewhat of a suburb of San Angelo. When I was young, we didn’t really spend much time at church except for weddings and maybe a funeral here and there.  When I was in kindergarten in this rural, predominantly Catholic community, the school bus stopped at St. Ambrose Catholic Church on Wednesday after school so that the kids could get off and go to catechism.  Not knowing any better, I got off the bus too on that first Wednesday of kindergarten.  Like I said, it was a small community, so somebody eventually called my mother to tell her where I was.  She was pretty panicked when I didn’t get off the bus at home.  Long story short, I continued going to catechism the rest of the year.  It was shortly after the second Vatican council, so I was warmly welcomed and enjoyed learning about God. 

          Eventually, my family started attending a very small Methodist church in another little community called Eola.  Twelve to fifteen in attendance was a good Sunday, and four of those were my family!  Even though we attended the Methodist church, I didn’t abandon St. Ambrose.  I still went to vacation Bible school and other functions and attended church with friends from time to time.  When I had knee surgery from a high school football injury, the Catholic priest was one of the first ones to come visit me.   

          Fast forward through the college years (you don’t really want to know the details anyway), I met my wife, we got married, had kids.  Before going into pastoral ministry I worked in television and later in the finance industry.  I held several different lay leadership positions within the local church and within the district.  

          After much discernment, I finally answered the call to pursue pastoral ministry.  I enrolled at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky where I earned a Masters of Divinity degree.  Later, I was accepted into the Doctor of Ministry program at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina where I earned my doctorate. I’ve served four different churches in the RioTexas Conference of the United Methodist Church.  Everything from small rural churches and a new church start in San Antonio to a tall-steeple downtown church. 

          Throughout all of that, I couldn’t ask for a better partner in ministry and life than my wife, Cindy.  We’ve raised three amazing children:  The oldest is a civil engineer who has recently embraced being a stay at home mom.  Our middle daughter is a licensed professional counselor.  And, our son is a graduate student at Rice University and plays tight end for the football team.   

          And the cherry on top is that Cindy and I now hold the distinguished titles of Grammy and Papaw!