Through many different trails and trials, I have come to where I am today.   It is easier for me to write poetry or sermons than it is to write a bio.  I have never liked resumes when I was in the private sector. 

Proverbs 27:2  Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

It is hard to do that when you are required to praise yourself in order to secure a job.  It is even harder when seeking a ministry when you and they both know whatever you have achieved that counts came from God so He gets the glory, but too often the brethren look at you and your resume like they do in the secular world and you need to toot your own horn.   If you need one, I will send you both secular and ministry resumes for your review, but I would rather send you to friends and colleagues for recommendations.

Neither my secular career nor my ministry have followed paths that I would have chosen.  They have been varied and interesting.  Some have been edifying and some a burden.   Resumes, like financial products, should have a disclaimer saying that past results do not guarantee future gains.   I make no wild claims that I will bring revival or miracles to your church.  My professor said to never over promise and under perform so I do not make claims.  All I will do is ask God to use me to bless you.  I pray for God to use me and bless the congregation as I am all they have at that moment.

I will share a few things here.   I served in three branches of the military from 1970-98 when I retired.  I retired from Federal Civil Service in 2010.  On Jan 1, 2016, I resigned my IT job at Cook Childrens Medical Center in Fort Worth and now drawing Social Security.   However, I am not retired to the back porch.  I am retired to full time ministry.   I currently do as much as I can for my local church, but I am also active in the community.  I am teaching a basic PC skills class under the auspices of the local library in a community center.  I substitute where my youngest grandchild goes to school.   I have a Facebook account and this website.  I have many sermons and poems online.  There may come a day when i am relegated to the back porch where as long as I can I will post to the Internet I will still have a ministry of some type until I am in a coma or dead. 

Now, since I entered the ministry, I have tried to be the antithesis of the stereotype that "all preachers are in it for the money."  I have been bi-vocational for most of my ministry.  I pastored a small church after my retirement from the VA in 2010, but soon had to take a job and stopped my salary to keep it financially afloat.   I left it better than I found it.   A friend in the ministry once said that the only problem I had was that I did not have many titles or salaries and that hindered churches from calling me to a staff position.   I found that odd as I would have thought that it proved that i was not in ministry for ego or money.  I am not sure what that says about the churches.

I do know that telling churches that I would come for less than they offered raised eyebrows and closed the door.  Even now, I an afraid that when churches see that I am offering my services for free they think there is something wrong or maybe desperate about me.  I am not a Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but my needs have been taken care of by a gracious God and a awesome frugal wife.  Thus I am free to minister freely for free.  I have given checks back to churches that I know needed it far more than I did.  I guess that does make me a bit weird in these days of multi-millionaire pastors and evangelists.  If that makes me weird, I can live with that. 
 

I will be glad to minister to you no matter what size church you may be. I have ministered in African-American churches and a Latino one.  I would love to minister in an Asian congregation. I have even ministered through an interpreter in a jail to ICE detainees if your congregation is not bi-lingual. 

My life verses and call to ministry are Luke 22:31,32.  I believe my varied career and ministry history are part of my conversion to fulfill the calling of strengthening the brethren.  Help me fulfill my calling by allowing me to minister to you.  Blessings and peace be unto you!