Senior Pastor Candidate Profile.

Questions & Answers

Spiritual

How have you seen God's faithfulness during a difficult season?

There are so many ways I could answer this question. My experience with pastoral ministry has been that of showing up in impossible situations and watching God work them out somehow.  Broken marriages, terrible addictions, deep generational sin, lies, violence, all kinds of tragedy. It is so much more than any one man could ever navigate on his own. But as often as I have come to God with the burdens of my people, He has always intervened. 

The case that comes to mind now is the journey of fostering and adopting Elizabeth. There were many moments in which every sign we could decipher looked like either the state or Elizabeth’s Native tribe was just about to intervene in her case in a way that would remove her from our home. More than once, we were told to pack up her stuff and get her ready to leave the next morning. 

And yet, as we watched and prayed, every time God intervened and kept us together. Once the opportunity arose to adopt Liz, a whole new set of institutional barriers emerged, and still God worked in miraculous ways to keep our family together. Finally, on September 20th, 2021, we became a family forever. That is the singular most profound instance of God’s faithfulness in my life, and it came through the most difficult season I have endured.  

What experiences have most shaped you as a Pastor?

I worked as a Student Pastor at a very small church in rural Kentucky. I arrived in that role as a cocky, 24 year old knucklehead who thought he was on his way to having some kind of big influence or platform. It did not take long for me to realize that I was going to have to be content with following God just because I love him, because no one builds a ministry brand at a generational farm church in the Kentucky hills. 

That lesson crystallized for me when my family and I moved to Alaska, and into total obscurity. No one was inviting me onto their podcast, no one wanted me to write the forward to their book; it was just me, Andi, and God doing our best to love and lead well. 

It was in this season that I first read a book by Jack Eswine called “The Imperfect Pastor” - a book that I now read annually. Zack’s thesis is that pastoral ministry is simply daily apprenticeship to Jesus. That is my heart for ministry, and if God wants to use me for something big or something small, that is up to him. 

Additionally, I have great mentors and an awesome example in my dad, who has been a staff pastor at the same church for over 35 years. God has used every ministry stop along my journey to get me ready for the call he has placed on my life, which is now to help lead and love HNW.  

When did you first sense God calling you to vocational ministry?

The summer between my junior and senior years of high school is when the calling evolved from something I had toyed with to an unavoidable call. I was at a summer camp with my home church’s youth group and the camp speaker invited anyone who was wrestling with a call to ministry to come and speak with an adult counselor about that. 

I was providentially paired with a man who shared his testimony with me: now in his 60’s, he has sensed a call to ministry as a much younger man and had been haunted all his life of what his fear of following that call had cost him. That may not sound like a very encouraging conversation, but it sobered me and helped me really discern if this was just a fun idea or a real calling on my life. 

I made the call known to my church once we returned home from camp, and many people affirmed my calling and gifting to lead and teach.  

Who have been some of the most influential spiritual mentors in your life?

Up close: my dad, my Senior Pastor in Kentucky, my dear friend Tracy Simmons, and my first camp director at Pine Cove - Jeff Lay. 

From a distance, Tim Keller on church leadership, Dallas WIllard on personal spiritual formation, CS Lewis on the Christian imagination, Francis Schaeffer on transformative community, and Eugene Peterson on the pastor’s heart.  

How do you spend time alone with God?

My daily rhythm is one of prayer and Bible study. I start each morning by reading the Bible and asking the Lord to speak to me through it. 

I then slowly pray my way through the prayer of St. Francis (I’m not Catholic, but I think Francis got it right with that prayer) and I pray my way through my day. I ask for the Spirit’s leadership and power to love my wife and daughters well, to lead well at work, to move fast enough to be effective and slow enough to care for the people in my path. 

I employ silence and solitude at regular intervals. I practice listening prayer, and I often ask the Lord to bring to mind the people and situations he would have me pray for. It has been my experience that the Christian life can be profoundly unspiritual, and mine is to live counter to that, constantly in two places at once - wherever I am physically and also in the Father’s presence.  

Family & Personal

What does your family enjoy doing together?

On a nice day, we love to pick up a pizza for dinner and eat at a park while the kids play on the playground. We are so proud of our girls, and we love any opportunity to watch them laugh and play. We also love movie nights, dance parties, and trips to the public library.

What is something people are often surprised to learn about you?

That I am sensitive to interpersonal conflict and that I deeply feel the human consequences of the decisions I make as leader. I have spent most of my ministry career in leadership positions, and I am thankful for that. I hope that by leading, I am serving those who get to follow. 

That said, leadership can present very complicated human challenges, and it often falls to the leader to make the hard call or to say the hard word. I don’t enjoy the hard moments, but I do my best to lead through them with confidence and a calm demeanor. Often, after the fact, I have a really hard time emotionally as I process through the consequences of the hard decisions that sometimes have to be made.  

What is your ideal day off?

My ideal day off is filled with fun family activities, a good book, good coffee, and maybe an hour or two of alone time. An early morning alone to read and pray, listening through an entire album during my younger daughters’ naptime, an evening workout, and maybe some video games with Elizabeth.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

I enjoy reading - fiction and non-fiction both. Nothing reaches me like the drama of a great story. I have a Nintendo Switch 2 that I enjoy playing, though my gaming time is very limited these days. I love to lift weights; there is something so satisfying about throwing myself at something hard. 

I love to compete: pickup basketball, ultimate frisbee, flag football, chess, board games, cards, etc. I love to play! I think Christians should have the most fun of anyone in the world. GK Chesterton wrote, “Solemnity flows out of men naturally, but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” When I am not working, I work hard to be light, to laugh, and to really enjoy the small moments.  

Are you a morning person or night owl?

I am naturally a night owl, but fatherhood has taught me that quiet mornings before the kids wake up are a treasure.

What books, music, sports, or activities do you enjoy?

Books: Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as his space trilogy. I re-read Narnia once a year. I read a lot of non-fiction as well, mostly books on Christian living, philosophy, and whatever I’m assigned as I pursue my M.Div. 

Music: I am a child of the 90s and early 2000s, so I unashamedly go back to what I loved in high school - Relient K, Switchfoot, Avril Lavigne, Paramore, the Killers, All-American Rejects, Anberlin, Needtobreathe (before 2015), MUTEMATH, P.O.D, even a little Owl City from time to time. Lately, I have been into Cameron Whitcomb, The Strike, and the cover band Our Last Night. I grew up listening to classic rock with my dad and that’s still my go to for a road trip or a workout.

Sports: I really like all the sports where you contact the ball directly—Football, Basketball, and Soccer. Not a big fan of stick/racquet/bat/club sports. Andi and I watched a lot of ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries when we were first married, and now we both follow college football closely. We love to watch the Aggies or the Wolverines when they are on TV, but we usually plan our Saturdays in the fall around the college football game of the week. 

Activities: I love to read and discuss with a group. I love listening to and discussing music. I love museums, love live sports (even the stick sports), enjoy playing sports, and I enjoy video games as well. I have a hobby interest in amateur barbecue, architecture, vinyl records, hiking, and board games.

Pastoral + Leadership

What do you love most about being a pastor?

Personally, there is deep satisfaction in knowing I am walking in God’s specific call on my life. Pastorally, nothing compares to seeing repentance take root and watching people experience the transforming mercy of Jesus.

How would you describe your preaching style?

I try to marry careful exposition and thoughtful attention to the nuances of Scripture with the accessibility of language that a new believer or skeptic needs. I try to avoid Christian jargon, and provide clear context for biblical characters, events, and their historical background. I am intentional about speaking in a way that anyone, regardless of their previous church experience, can follow, understand, and apply.

I go out of my way to engage with questions and doubts by inviting thoughtful reflection, even on famous passages that may feel familiar to most. Every sermon I preach points to Jesus and the Gospel, making his person and work central to the message. Above all, I preach with the hope that believers will be inspired to live faithfully under Christ’s authority, while those still exploring faith can encounter the beauty, coherence, and life-changing power of the Gospel.

How do you prepare for a sermon?

I begin with prayer and repeated exposure to the main passage that God has led me to. I prefer to preach around half of each year, verse by verse, through whole books of the Bible. My vision is to supplement that with topical series on Christian living, spiritual practices, Christian doctrine, and Scriptural themes. 

Specifically, my preparation follows four movements: exposition (what does the text say?), explanation (what does the text mean?), illustration (bringing the text to life), and application (what should we do about it?). I strive to keep sermon application tethered to the Gospel as opposed to moralism.  

How would you describe your primary responsibility as a senior pastor?

To care for the church as a shepherd cares for his flock; eagerly, willingly, under God’s direction, clothed in humility, and as an example to the church.

How do you balance preaching, leadership, pastoral care, and family life?

When I think of balance, I more so aim for faithfulness in every season than true equilibrium. Some weeks sermon prep demands the lion's share of my attention; other weeks I’ll spend a lot of time in a hospital room or leadership crisis. What doesn't move is the non-negotiables: time with Andi and our three girls, and the disciplines that keep my own soul fed so I have something to give everyone else. 

I've learned that a pastor who sacrifices his family on the altar of ministry can’t really succeed in ministry. By default, he's failed at the most important assignment God gave him - to lead and love his family. So I try to hold my weekly rhythm loosely enough to let the Spirit and human needs interrupt it, but tightly enough that my wife and kids never feel like an afterthought.  

What does healthy pastoral leadership look like to you?

Healthy pastoral leadership looks like a shepherd who's willing to be known, not just to lead from a stage. I don't believe in a lone-ranger senior pastor model, and I've built my ministry around shared eldership. It's also slow in the right places and decisive in others: patient with people's growth, but clear-eyed and quick when the mission or the flock's health is at stake. 

Practically, that means I measure health less by attendance or energy in a room and more by whether people are becoming more like Jesus, whether leaders are being raised up under me, and whether the church could survive without me — because the structure and the disciple-making don't depend on one personality.  

What does accountability look like in your life?

Accountability starts at home: nothing is off limits for Andi to ask or to call me out, and I welcome that. Andi is a gifted encourager, but she also has immense discernment. Her voice is the most important influence in my life. 

Beyond that, I answer to a plurality of elders, not just as a board that rubber-stamps my direction but as men who have real authority to question me where it counts. Structurally, I want systems like regular elder review, transparent finances, and clear channels for the congregation to raise concerns; systems that don't depend on my own self-report in order to work.  

How do you develop and empower other leaders?

My clearest conviction here is that leadership development can't be an accident, it takes work. Over the years I've built formal pathways for this: structured residencies for people discerning a call to ministry, a preaching and teaching cohort with real feedback loops, and an elder development track with its own curriculum and qualifications review. 

Outside of formal structures, development comes down to giving people real responsibility earlier than feels comfortable, then staying close enough to coach them through it. I'd rather have five leaders who are 70% as polished as me doing real ministry than keep every rep for myself and end up as the ceiling on what the church can become.  

What does meaningful discipleship look like to you?

Discipleship is the lifelong process of being formed into Christlikeness. Christians can directly impact their own spiritual formation by walking in obedience to Jesus and His way, but we are only truly transformed when we are compelled by genuine affection for Jesus. Fear, social pressure, culture, and ego can all produce short-term symptoms of discipleship, but will ultimately fail to sustain the Christian life as only love for God can.

What are the marks of a spiritually healthy church?

A spiritually healthy church is marked by genuine faithfulness: faithfulness to Christ, faithfulness to the teaching of scripture, and faithfulness to the mission He has given to His people. This includes faithfulness in how the church interacts with its city and community, responding thoughtfully and prayerfully to the specific demographics, challenges, and opportunities of the population it serves. 

At a more practical level, spiritual health involves the biblical responsibilities of the New Testament church. This includes teaching the Gospel faithfully, baptizing believers, welcoming them into membership and fellowship, equipping them for ministry, and sending them out so that more lost people are reached and saved. 

I think of a faithful local church as a kind of “school for life,” a place where people learn God’s will in every area of their lives. Healthy churches not only form people spiritually but also equip them to navigate relationships, decisions, opportunities, challenges, and mistakes with a Christ-centered perspective. A church that faithfully nurtures and deploys disciples in all areas of life is, in my view, a spiritually healthy church.  

About HNW

What initially interested you in HNW?

A good friend asked me if he could recommend me to the PST at HNW. I wanted to know what I was getting into before I said yes, so I looked at the website. It was immediately obvious to me that HNW is serious about God’s Word, serious about God’s Kingdom, and serious about walking in joyful obedience. That was more than enough for Andi and I to begin praying about the opportunity to be considered for the Senior Pastorate at HNW.

What have you come to appreciate about HNW during this process?

How incredibly warm and generous the people are! Every member of the PST has become a personal friend to me and Andi, and we have fallen in love with their families. As we moved into the elder phase, it became obvious to me that HNW has truly special elders, but more importantly there is a long legacy of Godly men at HNW who lead with love and gentleness. I am so eager to have that influence the way my daughters think of good men.

What excited you about the vision and mission of HNW?

HNW’s unapologetically Baptist backbone combined with a clearly articulated practical framework for life and community transformation. The Kingdom/Disciple/Society/Church paradigm is far more robust than the typical “gather, grow, serve, go” other churches sometimes use, and it reflects a church thinking carefully about how doctrine shapes real life. 

I appreciate the credal foundation of HNW’s Core Beliefs. The practical distinctives: voluntary cooperation, operational independence, historic orthodoxy on sexuality, continuationist yet ordered gifts, and a clear affirmation of God’s sovereignty in salvation, form a coherent and recognizably Baptist culture without surrendering to tradition or tribalism. 

I am also fully aligned with HNW's vision for men and women, which I think reflects careful biblical thinking about the kingdom and the undoing of the Fall rather than a reaction to cultural pressure in either direction. Men lovingly take up responsibility for their families; women freely choose to submit and serve within that framework, not because Scripture diminishes women, but because it dignifies both roles as gifts rather than grievances. 

HNW's practice bears this out structurally: the office of elder is preserved for qualified men, while women teach, baptize, and administer communion under elder oversight. That's not a compromise position; it's a church that has actually done the exegetical work and landed somewhere coherent, rather than defaulting to either rigid complementarianism or functional egalitarianism.  

What do you hope we learn about you during this process?

That I really don’t have an agenda. I think that must be something most pastoral candidates feel like they have to say to their prospective church, but I really mean it. I have no doubt that God will reveal his will for HNW to me and the elders when the time is right, but I am so excited to listen and learn for as long as I can. HNW is a special place and I want to take my time and really enjoy getting to know how God is already at work.

How can HNW pray for you and your family during this process?

This will be the first (and therefore largest) move for all three of my daughters. All three were born in Alaska and will have to make lots of adjustments in a really short amount of time. Andi and I ask that any of you who are willing would pray for Liz, Lexi, and Shiloh. Our greatest concern in this transition is the good of our daughters.

JUST FOR FUN

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee! Although I enjoy hot tea when I am sick, coffee is a daily staple. I love a good latte.

What is one book you often recommend?

On the non-fiction side, I frequently recommend Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee. It’s a great little book about the basic postures of the Christian life. It’s great for new believers and seasoned disciples alike.

Brandon Sanderson is my favorite fiction author. Most of his books and series are connected, but The Way of Kings is a good place to start. Sorry I cheated and talked about more than one book. I love books!  

What is your favorite place you have visited?

The Dominican Republic. I traveled there annually with Pine Cove while I was a college student and I fell in love with the people and culture. I know just enough Spanish to get myself in trouble, but the people were so gracious and hospitable to me in spite of my butchering their language. Youth camp in the heart of the island jungle is one of those experiences you just can’t beat.

What team do you cheer for?

I married into an Aggie family, so I’ve learned to whoop and saw ‘em off. But deep in my heart, I am a Michigan Wolverines fan. We are huge college football fans and we cheer for the Aggies when we can, but I would have to pick Michigan over A&M if it was ever head to head.

What is one food you could eat every week?

Carne asada street tacos! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner if it was up to me.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

At the end of your life, you will always wish you had more time with the people you love. So do all you can now to make sure your relationships are outpacing your career and your ambitions. People are what matters most.

Favorite Houston-area Tex-Mex?

This is so lame, but I’m going to be honest: it’s Chuy’s. I love it. Whenever I eat other Tex-Mex, I just wish I was at Chuy’s.