My Driving Passions

1. The Word: Recognition of and submission to the final authority and total sufficiency of Scripture. 

2. God: Adherence to an exalted view of God.

3. Christ: Central focus upon the person, work, and beauty of Jesus Christ.

4. Man: Teaching an accurate doctrine of man.

5. Church: Affirmation of the foundational and functional purpose of the local church as a disciple-making community, expanding in reach and influence.

6. Leadership: Operationally implemented through a priority of a plurality of biblical pastoral leadership and training of additional leaders throughout all areas of ministry.

7. Community: Functioning as a church family that loves God and loves others.

8. Service. Labor to the point of exhaustion as an ambassador of Christ’s ongoing redemptive work.

God's Call to Pastoral Ministry

Early Years of Ministry

Throughout my time in college I was heavily involved in the college ministry of First Baptist Church of Davis. I was discipled by the college pastor, coordinated Greek system ministries, taught Bible Studies, preached, went on a mission’s project and did regular cold contact campus evangelism. I saw the Lord produce fruit in people’s lives as a result of ministering my gifts and received quite a bit of encouragement to keep expanding my service. The Lord really began to burden my heart more and more as to how my life could be most useful to Him based on who had made me to be. By the time I graduated my all-consuming desire was to further explore ministry as a career. Based on the extent of my ministry involvement, the consensus advice and personal desire was to go to seminary for further training and education so I worked for about a year and a half, saving money while I investigated which school to attend. The Lord led me to The Master’s Seminary. I chose this seminary because of their emphasis on the personal holiness and Biblical qualifications of the men they train, their commitment to the local church, and their passion for expository verse-by-verse preaching. I graduated with honors and received my Master of Divinity in May of 1994.

Unexpected Turns

Since my seminary days God’s providence has taken turns that I didn’t anticipate. I succeeded a founding pastor in a church plant as my first vocational ministry position and after 2 more years of “limping along” we closed that church and I returned to the place I grew up with the hopes of planting a church. This required a bi-vocational effort while raising a growing family of 5 children. The Lord was so gracious in sustaining that work, but through some very severe ministerial trials I left that work in 2008.  From 2008 to 2012 I served at First Baptist Church in Merced where unbeknown to me a controversy was brewing over Lordship salvation and competing philosophy of ministry approaches. Three times I was put forward to be an elder but each time denied by existing leaders who were anti-Lordship salvation. We left First Baptist Church took a turn opposite of what I believe when they dismissed the Sr. Pastor over similar convictions, sold our home in the central valley and moved to Vallejo in August of 2012 to be part of Community Bible Church.

Renewed Vigor

My desire and qualifications for pastoral ministry have not diminished. I praise God for sustaining a tender-hearted love for Christ and His church.  Through the years God has purified my desire for service and dealt so graciously with me and my family.  I’ve learned that earning my living from the gospel has no bearing on my calling. I affirm that all of God’s providences are good! The Lord continues to reinforce the lesson that Christ is enough for me, that He alone is sufficient and that no amount of perceived ministerial success or trial or hard soiled field can replace Him!

Since making the decision to leave First Baptist Church in 2012 God has sovereignly brought me monthly pulpit supply opportunities, walked me through two extensive candidating experiences that both affirmed my character and giftedness, encouraged me by allowing me to see fruitful labors and re-invigorate a desire to return to vocational pastoral ministry should He providentially open the door.  I have completed a church planting program through Grace Advance, become debt free, and am seeing God grow me both in character and preaching and leading for the edification of the saints.  My desire continues to be to make this brief vapor of a life I have been given that has been ransomed by Christ maximized for His glory and the good of His people.

Personal Testimony

Early Life

Having grown up in a household where church attendance was not only expected but required, I learned about God and Jesus at an early age. Every Sunday my parents took our family to the Presbyterian USA Church in Merced, CA. Vacation Bible School, children's choir, summer camps, and Sunday school combined to give me a solid foundation upon which to return. I was a normal good kid with the right Christian answers, but simply did not live out the Christian life at school or anywhere else. I initially accepted Jesus as my Savior at a Vacation Bible school when I was about eight years old. As I have often looked back on my growing-up years, I now know that I was not a follower of the Lord Jesus. I basically pursued my own interests and the desires of the flesh, often feeling guilty every week in Sunday school. I can remember wanting to change but never following through on any commitment to yield my life to Christ. 

Conversion

Finally after graduating from High School and completing a one year term as State FFA Vice-President for California (Future Farmers of America), I attended the First National Christian Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Before you can understand my emptiness at this point, you must understand my preoccupation with FFA. I had dedicated my life to this organization! I had achieved state and national honors and had spent a year between high school and college teaching students, traveling across California, representing FFA to corporations, etc., solely to promote and develop the image and worthiness of FFA as a youth organization. When I finished my term as a state officer, my purpose and direction vanished and my usefulness came to an abrupt halt. FFA was my idol and it fed my pride and selfishness as the purpose for which I lived. When my tenure ended, my world came crashing down and I realized that I had lived in utter rebellion toward Christ. I was a hypocrite who attended church but didn’t love Christ and certainly didn’t submit to His Lordship. God graciously brought me to repentance and a deeply felt sorrow over my sin. I confessed my sinfulness to Jesus and sought His forgiveness with desperation and self-abandonment at the Christian Youth Leadership Conference. I put my full trust in Him as my substitute and gave my life to follow Him. My life changed immediately! God had done a gracious work giving me a new heart. I knew I had made a lifelong commitment and looked forward to beginning a new way of life at college.

New Direction

As I entered college at U.C. Davis, God faithfully provided a Christian roommate and a solid Christian fellowship group. I now wanted to go to Church, read my Bible and pray and did those things on my own initiative. During my first two years of college I grew in my desire for God's word, and eventually had my first experience hosting a Bible study with my roommate. Also during my sophomore year I attended a weekend retreat in which our college pastor taught on 1 Corinthians and Philippians, challenging us to serve God first. I learned that a Christian who does not serve is a contradiction, and that my activities and involvement needed to be prioritized to reflect Christ's lordship in my life. I decided to eliminate some activities in order to free up time for Christian service. Ultimately that decision proved to be God's providence as our campus director challenged me to serve on the student leadership team as Fraternity ministry coordinator for the following school year. I accepted the position and was also discipled by the campus director over the next year and a half. 

Since those college days The Lord Jesus has become more and more precious to me and I’m so thankful for both His initial saving grace and His ongoing preserving grace in my life. I’m amazed that He has so faithfully kept my heart tender and hungry for Him as my all satisfying Savior.