Candidate 23 Profile

Section A. Background Information

10. Year of Ordination

11. Denomination of Ordination

RCA

12. If not RCA, what classes or supervising body from the ordaining denomination recognizes your ordination?

13. Present denomination

RCA

14. Present classis or judicatory

Delaware-Raritan

15. If you are not now a member of the Reformed Church in America, can you, in good conscience, agree with the doctrine, discipline and government of the RCA?

Yes

16. Do you support the mission and division of the Reformed Church in America?

Yes

17. Citizen of what country? If not USA, do you have permit to live and work in the USA?

USA

18. Previous Experience

19. Formal Education

20. Continuing Education

21. Languages (list any languages, other than English, in which you can preach or converse fluently)

I am fluent and can preach in Spanish. I can hold basic conversations in German, French, and American Sign Language

Section B. Reflection

1. Describe your strengths, the best of who you are, and what you bring in service to the church.

I am deeply committed to effectively communicating the Gospel. This includes teaching and nurturing the faith for those who are part of the church community and thoughtfully engaging with those who are seeking or who have not yet fully come to faith. My ministry has always reflected the conviction that every member of the congregational family is equally important. I try to model a ministry that cares deeply for both those within and without of the church. My congregations have always been places where people who struggle with doubt or who are exploring faith have found a safe home.

I am an experienced leader who brings an adaptable and broad skill set to any given congregation. Over the years, I have been able to discern the key needs of the churches I have served, lead them to develop a strategic approach to where they need and want to go, and finally help them implement concrete steps to realize the vision God has for them. I think an important part of being a pastor is helping individuals and congregations’ function in the          gifts God has given them and find concrete ways for people to use their skills, passions, and expertise for the kingdom of God

I take what I do seriously, while trying not to take myself so seriously. At heart, I am a Christian for the same reason everyone else is; I need the grace of God in Christ and believe that same Christ is the revelation of both who God is and who humanity is to become. For me the Christian life is a holy adventure; one where we must think deeply, love passionately, serve with compassion; laugh when we can and weep when we must.

2. Name two or three mentors who have significantly contributed to your ministry, and explain why these people are important to you.

I first met The Rev. Dr. Bill Harter through his support of the Young Life ministry I was doing in our community.   His daughters were involved, and he and his wife enthusiastically offered the parsonage to host our meetings. We were by his observation the only racially integrated ministry in town I eventually started attending his congregation  and was truly impressed with his tireless service to his church and community. It was through Bill’s encouragement that I ended up going to seminary full-time and pursuing ordination. Bill is brilliant and could have easily excelled in the academy or in a university church setting but chose to serve a small-town church for 30 years. He wa s a master politician without an ounce of cynicism. He loved both his church and his community with his whole being. He also is a devoted family man who modeled unconditional love to all under his care. When his wife and partner in ministry died suddenly, he also showed us how to grieve. Most of all Bill wa a real Christian who I still went to for advice and counsel until his death last year.

Don Baker has been my best friend since we trained together in youth ministry. Our supervisor was a good man but burned out, so we would joke that we were left to train each other. Don is a man of deep compassion and integrity. He is someone who has always lived out the radical implications of the gospel while being such a non-judgmental presence in the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people. He models to me humility and a desire to keep growing. There is no one who works harder at the craft of ministry than Don. We tend to read different kinds of books, so I always ask him what I should be reading. He is the first person I go to for advice on challenges in ministry.

3. What caused you to enter ministry, and what are the core values that define your vision for ministry?

A sense of some kind of call was an early part of my faith.   My maternal Grandmother had a profound influence on my life and faith. She was so full of joy, life, and love. Jesus was her best friend and that made us want to be his friend too. I have always said that though I have gone through many theological and intellectual doubts, I have never been able to shake my grandmother's Jesus. The church was always an important part of my life and like many idealistic teenagers I became somewhat disillusioned at what I saw happening in the church. This created a tension in me between the sense of call that I had and not wanting to be subjected to what I perceived pastors went through on a regular basis. I began to explore either an academic career or graduate work in clinical psychology, though continuing to be a part of a faith community and serving when asked.

While in college, a friend of mine needed a guitar player for his youth ministry and after his relentless pressure, I reluctantly said yes. Two months later, he took a job out of state and I was leading the group which ultimately led to six years of youth ministry.  It was here I learned to love others in ministry regardless of where they were coming from,  It also helped me develop the ability to communicate the gospel in an effective way.  t was in this context, with the prodding and encouragement of multiple  church communities that I began seminary and eventually ended up in pastoral ministry.

For me ministry is a concrete working out of what Jesus identifies as the two great commands: to love God and to love your neighbor. In worship, prayer and discipleship, we express and learn what it is to love God. In our life together as Christians and in our mission and ministry in our communities and to the world, we are to concretely e xpress and live out our love of neighbor. Everything we do in ministry needs to somehow related either directly or indirectly to those two mandates.

4. Explain the strategies or ideas that most excite you for helping a church to become and remain missional.

I think the fact that we have to even discuss “missional” points to a basic failure of understanding at what the church actually is. The local church is a physical expression of the Body of Christ in time and space. In other words, we are the on-going presence of Christ in our communities. We are to care about the things and people God cares about; we are to be a place of healing and learning; we are to be a community of mercy, that speaks  the truth in love. The church is to be a spiritual oasis in the desert of the contemporary world.

There is no one formula that I have used over the years in the various congregations I have served, but I always  begin with the question if we shut down tomorrow, what part of the body of Christ would cease to function in this community or area. If the church has a sense of their place, then I build from there. If a church cannot answer that question, then I take them through a process to help them discern what that might be.

It is important to realize that a church has to have a relative degree of health to move forward. I think an outward focus tends to minimize internal difficulties, but sometimes you need to stop the bleeding first and help a congregation stabilize internally before you can really grow or engage in significant ministry.

5. Name three of your most passionate hopes for the Church at large, and why they are significant to you.

It is always important for the larger church to find ways to emphasize the things we have in common as opposed to the things that divide us, which is easier said than done in this divisive age we live in. But I have experienced it and I hope in small ways also have facilitated meaningful unity. I think our connections with the larger church also gives us opportunities to know Christians who are different from us, whether that be culturally, racially, or   geographically. In many ways, the most dynamic expressions of Christianity are not in the West, so my hope is that our brothers and sisters from the developing world can help teach and inspire us. I also think to have a sense that the family of God is bigger than who I relate to in my church and community is an important part of what we affirm every week when we say we believe in “one, holy, catholic” church.

6. Give an example of how you would theologically address an issue facing your contemporary world. Please be thorough enough to help the reader to understand your thought processes and your life commitments.

When addressing any issue from a Christian perspective, I think there are three arenas of concern. First, it is important that we think Biblically; meaning, how we allow the Scriptures to speak both directly to a given issue and equally important is how the Word of God teaches us to approach things in general. There are many situations in the modern world that the Bible does not address directly, but there are central Biblical principles  that can apply to every situation.

Secondly, one has to think theologically. For me that entails including insights from science, philosophy, psychology, history, etc. I believe all truth is God’s truth and apropos insights from relevant disciplines are essential in making informed Christian conclusions. Loving God with our minds means using them.   If your bel iefs do not confirm to reality, then you need to change your beliefs.

Finally, one has to think pastorally. For me that means that whatever my position is on a certain issue, I have to imagine me applying it to a person directly affected. Now in the course of my ministry, I have had to face people in almost every possible situation and quandary. Sometimes I have said things they did not like hearing, and sometimes those experiences have made me rethink my positions. Because God is present to all situation, Christian ethics is always personal.

7. What theologians, pastors, authors or other leaders have had the greatest influence upon your life and thought? (List up to 4 and explain.)

Tomas Halik is probably the living theologian that has influenced me the most. He is a Czech Roman Catholic theologian who was secretly ordained during the communist era and was significantly shaped by the “Prague Spring” and aftermath of the Soviet repression. He is combines theological reflection with profound philosophical and psychological insights. In my opinion, there is no better thinker engaging the post-Christian world.

Karfried Froehlich was my church history professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. A brilliant, humble and devoted churchman, he inspired me to study the great minds and lives of the church in a way that has given me a lifetime pursuit of learning from the fathers and mothers of the church. Without him, I would never have come to love St. Augustine and Dame Julian of Norwich, two teachers I go to again and again.

Probably the other person I go back to again and again is Thomas Merton. A complicated man and writer, but he distills for me the essence of the spiritual life and practice probably as well as anyone I have read.

8. How do you hope someone influenced by your ministry would describe what s/he considers to be most important?

I believe we need to have a passion for Christ and the Church; which translates to working hard and doing ministry the best we can. Equally, we need to have deep compassion for our people, the world, and also ourselves. We need to always be striving to improve our craft, while growing theologically and spiritually.   We also need our families to know they are a priority. We should be a reliable friend to our colleagues and hold on to our vocations “loosely.”   We must remember that in the end, we are Christians for the same reason everyone else is.

9. Name at least one challenge for a pastor who accepts a Call to lead a church whose culture is other than his/her own.

One of the most important principles I have learned in my cross-cultural work, whether it be international, urban, rural or interfaith is the following:  “You don’t know what you don’t know in any setting and when working in a cross-cultural setting you really don’t know what you don’t know.” Extra caution, humility and study is required. In any ministry setting discerning who to trust for advice and counsel is an important task; in cross-cultural settings it is essential.   Learning to listen before speaking and also being sensitive to the fact that in most settings being an educated person from the USA creates an unequal power dynamic that carries with it all kinds of possibilities for unhealthy dynamics.

10. Describe your vision and hopes for the Church over the next 5-10 years.

I think given both the great divides in this country as well as the general decline in church involvement, local congregations need have a clear sense of the concrete implications of the reconciling work of Christ. We need to be havens of healing and models of unity in the midst of our diversity. I think we need to teach our kids and youth how to think faithfully and faithfully think. We need to find concrete ways to demonstrate that following Christ means we serve others. I think we need to rediscover and go deeper in our spiritual lives through, prayer, worship, and study.   We need to live generously and with hope. Ultimately, I think the goal is to see church not as an organization of doing, but the family of God living and being in Christ. Being a church historian gives me a sense of p erspective. Since the beginning, Christians have done both amazing work in the name of Christ and have failed miserably. Our hope is not based ultimately on us "getting it right" but rather in the coming triumph of God. Until then, we work hard, pray honestly, and seek to live in and give the mercy of God in Christ. I think the necessity of virtual ministry during Covid is a blessing in that it has forced many of us to realize that we must have multiple connecting points for people to engage in church. Our ministry footprint has increased exponentially be being forced to focus on folks not in the building. I am excited about continuing to explore these options going forward.

11. If there is anything else you would like to add about yourself that you think would help a search team to better understand and consider you as their next pastor, please elaborate here.

My work at an adjunct professor (Palmer Theological Seminary 2001-2012; New Brunswick Theological 2016-17) has not only allowed me to help shape hundreds of pastors in training, but also given me fresh insight to the challenges facing pastors and congregations. The consulting work I have been engaged with over the last seven years has been a unique way not only to serve, but also to broaden my knowledge and experiences with congregations in multiple settings. I am indebted beyond words to my mission and ministry partners in urban and international settings that have taught me over the years the radical way of Christ and what it means to live in hope in the midst of poverty, violence, and seemingly insurmountable challenges. And finally, my extensive involvement in Jewish Christian dialogue over the last fifteen years has challenged me in ways too numerous to name, but has also been one of the most important gifts to me as a human being and Christian.