Education History:
o High School—Home Schooled
o College—B.A. in Bible from Harding University, (Searcy, AR), 1999
o Graduate—M.Div. from Harding Graduate School of Religion, (Memphis, TN), 2004

Interests/Hobbies:
o Sports—I am sports fanatic. My favorite is football. I am a huge Alabama Crimson Tide fan. I inherited my love of the Tide from my father who grew up in Alabama. I have participated in 2 fantasy football leagues for several years now and will probably commish a league for my family this fall. My other sports favorites include the Atlanta Braves (MLB), Memphis Tigers (of course!), Indianapolis Colts (NFL), Tiger Woods (yes, golf), Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Jr (NASCAR). My favorite NASCAR driver to pull against is Jeff Gordon. I follow pro basketball, but don’t have a favorite team. I haven’t closely followed the Grizzles since they traded Shane Battier to Houston. I also enjoy watching playoff hockey and World Cup soccer. If it is sports and on TV, I will watch it; which by the way my wife hates.

o Pool/Billards—I participate in an APA 9-ball pool league locally with some of my friends and neighbors.

A Scripture that is important to you: I don’t’ have a “favorite” Scripture. However, one that is important to me is Matthew 16:24-25. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it’” (NIV). This passage is important to me because it reminds me of my daily task. My old self with his sinful and selfish desires comes up everyday. I have to start each day by dying to myself and turning my life over to God and his will for my life.

Favorite thing about Memphis: The people. A quote from a movie my wife (Amy) and I recently watched really hit home with me. A guy was speaking to a girl and said (paraphrased), “My childhood revolved around places, yours revolved around people.” My childhood revolved around places. My family didn’t live anywhere longer than six years when I was growing up and the average was four (I was not part of a military family). As a result I don’t have many childhood friends or a good answer to the question “Where are you from.” I have now lived in Memphis longer than anywhere else I have lived in my life (Jan. 2001 we moved here). I have more friends and deeper relationships with people here in Memphis than from any other place in my life where I have lived. My wife and I feel at home here and we have no plans on ever moving away from this city (although we will always follow God’s leading).

History with MUM:
o January 2001—December 2007; Wonder City Church of Christ (West Memphis, AR)—I started in the MUM apprenticeship program, became a part-time minister, then full-time minister for my final three years at Wonder City.

o April 2008—Present; Development

What is your personal mission while working with MUM? To borrow a line from the Marines, my goal at MUM is to help the organization be all that it can be. I believe that God’s vision for this city is huge and that we are just one piece of it. But God has given us a huge task as a part of his mission to reach and restore our community through planting churches, outreach, leadership and community development. All of those things take a tremendous amount of time, energy, patience, resources, volunteers, and money. My goal is to help MUM be all that it can be by finding those individuals who care about the poor and the lost as much as we do, plugging them into places where they can serve, and raising the money it takes to accomplish the vision.

Blog: Reflections