I began attending Fellowship in third grade and spent my formative years surrounded by teachers and friends who pointed me to Christ. Through many God-appointed people, circumstances, and personal failures, the Lord led me to see my sin and surrender to Christ at a young age. I attended youth group at Fellowship, and during junior high, I developed a growing desire to read and study God’s Word. In high school youth group, I loved how God revealed Himself to me—through creation, discipleship, and His Word. I also witnessed His unfolding mission through obedient servants on local and overseas mission trips.
I spent my first year of college in the Midwest at Cairn University’s satellite Wisconsin Wilderness Campus, where our classes were taught by professors from the main campus in Langhorne, PA, but our setting was the beautiful Northwoods. I worked various jobs during college—twisting dough at a pretzel factory, maintaining golf course greens, and guiding wilderness trips. While studying youth ministry at Cairn’s main campus, I returned to the Midwest for several summers to work at Camp Forest Springs, a job that combined my love for creation, outdoor adventure, discipleship, and God’s Word.
That experience created a holy discontent in my spirit. I hated Friday afternoons. I poured into campers on canoeing, backpacking, rock climbing, and kayaking trips each week, only to say goodbye at the end. Through those summers, God redirected my heart back to my roots: serving in the local church. God gave me the phrase long-term relational ministry as a clear calling. Seeing God’s long-term work in my life and the lives of others remains one of my greatest joys.
After graduating college, I married Joanna and joined the FCC staff in 2009 as the youth pastor. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed serving in many roles, including youth ministry, worship team, young adults, missions, men’s ministry, and various outreach events. In 2019, it became clear that the two students I had discipled were equipped and ready to take over my primary role in youth ministry. Though I only served as youth pastor for a few months during COVID, that was a season I’ll never forget—Zoom youth group was wild! At that point, I knew youth ministry was no longer where I was called, but I wasn’t sure what was next. I continued pastoring in various capacities at FCC while pursuing further education at Mission Seminary.
Through a long and thorough succession process led by our church board and an external consultant, I became the lead pastor of Fellowship in November 2024. We’ve documented the process and announcements here: https://www.fellowshipsj.org/succession-team.
Joanna and I have two kids—Olivia and Paxton—and a dog named Sophie. We love good food, games, outdoor adventures, sports (especially soccer), and vacationing in Maine. I appreciate musical complexity, a well-crafted sentence, and competing in various endeavors—just for fun.