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 offer spiritual direction and support to pastors and church leaders who are struggling with their faith (be it personally, theologically, or both), helping them discover a spiritual identity that is free of guilt and shame, one that is characterized by freedom, joy, and love. In a word, it is often through questioning established narratives and deconstructing inherited paradigms that we discover who we are and thereby become effective leaders.
I received my Religious Trauma Certification through the Global Center for Religious Research, and 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)