Full Bio

If the shorter “About” page tells you who I am, this fills in a bit more of how I got here.

I was born and raised in Patterson Creek, West Virginia—the eldest of four, son of Chuck and Madge. Those roots have a way of staying with you. They formed in me an early sense of community, responsibility, and the simple expectation that you show up, do your part, and take people seriously.

My call to ministry took shape there and carried me to West Virginia Wesleyan College and then to Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, where I completed my Master of Divinity. Along the way, the Army saw fit to send me to the University of Pittsburgh for an MBA, with a focus on management and organizational leadership—an education I never used in a traditional business setting, but one that proved invaluable in every institutional role that followed. I later returned to Wesley to complete my Doctor of Ministry, where my work focused on spirituality and the transformation of community life.

Taken together, these experiences left a lasting mark on how I understand both people and institutions. At their core is a conviction that people possess inherent worth, and that communities—and the systems that support them—should be ordered in ways that recognize, protect, and call forth that worth.

That conviction has followed me into every setting I’ve served.

I began in pastoral ministry in West Virginia, serving local congregations in both student and associate roles. Those early years taught me the rhythms of congregational life and the importance of presence, trust, and practical leadership—lessons that proved to be more transferable than I could have imagined.

I then entered active duty as a chaplain in the United States Army, where I served for nearly 23 years. My work ranged from direct ministry with soldiers and their families to senior leadership responsibilities involving personnel systems, policy development, and global resource management. Along the way, I served in the United States and Europe, taught leadership and financial management, and held roles within the Office of the Chief of Chaplains at the Pentagon, working in personnel systems and policy development that shaped the life and support of the Army chaplaincy.

My final military assignment placed me in a global leadership role responsible for religious support operations across Army installations worldwide, where I coordinated personnel, facilities, and programming across multiple continents and directed the resourcing and execution of that work. It was a long way from Patterson Creek, though the lessons learned there continued to apply.

Following military retirement, I continued in leadership within The United Methodist Church and theological education. I served as Deputy General Secretary of the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA), helping shape denominational-level financial strategy, policy, and operations, and working closely with leaders across the church to align resources with mission. I later served at Wesley Theological Seminary in senior administrative and development roles, supporting both the institutional mission and its long-term sustainability.

Across these roles, a consistent set of interests and areas of work emerged:

• the structure and function of ministry beyond the local church, particularly in extension and endorsement contexts • the alignment of institutional purpose, governance, and resources • leadership development and the formation of effective, accountable teams • the design and stewardship of systems that support people and mission at scale • the relationship between public trust, responsibility, and institutional life

Much of my current writing grows out of these experiences.

This website serves as a place to continue that work in a different form. Here, I write to explore ideas, test assumptions, and follow questions where they lead—sometimes beginning with lived experience, sometimes with institutional challenges, and often with the intersection of the two. The goal is not simply to describe systems, but to understand how they shape people and how they might be ordered more faithfully and effectively.

While my work has taken me through a range of roles—pastor, chaplain, administrator, teacher—the thread that connects them is a concern for how people live and work together, and what it takes to build communities and institutions worthy of that shared life.

I am an ordained Elder in The United Methodist Church and remain connected to the West Virginia Annual Conference.

I have been married to my wife, Maile, since 1984. We have two children and the great joy of being grandparents. Of all the roles I’ve held, being “Pappy” is easily the best.

Everything else, as meaningful as it has been, finds its place around that.