I am a Southern California native and former minister with a commitment to help people navigate the challenging terrain of spirituality in a postmodern culture.
My focus is working with those suffering from religious trauma (which can be defined as any event, relationship, or set of circumstances connected with religious belief or practice resulting in lasting adverse effects for those experiencing them).
In addition to religious trauma coaching I also have a passion to come alongside and support both pastors and laypeople who are struggling with their faith’s moral and/or doctrinal demands, helping them discover a spiritual path and identity that is free of the guilt and shame that so often accompany formal church affiliation and attendance. In a word, I love questioning established narratives and challenging inherited paradigms (especially my own). Deconstruction is often the first step toward true freedom.
I received my Religious Trauma Certification through the Global Center for Religious Research, and I earned my Masters of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California. I served as a pastor in Calvary Chapel (1992 – 2000) and the Presbyterian Church in America (2004 – 2012), and as a missionary in Africa (1991 – 1992) and Europe (1994 – 2000).
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Literary Publications:
Our Daily Dread: A Disruptive Devotional for Spiritual Misfits (Forthcoming)
Misfit Faith: Confessions of a Drunk Ex-Pastor (Random House, 2017)
The Destiny of the Species: Man, and the Future that Pulls Him (Wipf and Stock, 2013)
Dual Citizens: Worship and Life between the Already and the Not Yet (Ligonier/Reformation Trust, 2009)
“A Sacrificial Ethic” (Tabletalk, July 2011)
“Missionalism, Church Style” (Modern Reformation, May/June 2011)
“On Civil Religion” (Tabletalk, Feb. 2011)
“Works, Grace, and the Danger of ‘Golawspel’” (Tabletalk, Jan. 2011)
“On the Evils of Over-Strategizing” (Nicotine Theological Journal, Sept. 2010)
“From Eternity to Here: Baptism, Eschatologically Considered” (Tabletalk, Aug. 2010)
“The Destiny of the Species” (Modern Reformation, Nov./Dec. 2009)
“When Are We?” (Tabletalk, Oct. 2009)
“Whither the PCA?” (Nicotine Theological Journal, June 2009)
“The Letter to the Church in Sardis” (Tabletalk, May 2009)
“Where Grace is Found” (Modern Reformation, July/August 2007)
“The Unlikely Calvinist” (Evangelion, 2004)