Finding Faith: The Historical Jesus in the Undisputed Paulines (ePub)

I am a former pastor and retired businessman. I was born in 1951, and was married in 1972. We have children and grandchildren.

I was raised in Columbia, South Carolina as a Roman Catholic and attended parochial school until the 7th grade. After moving to public school, I became agnostic and remained so until age 27. At that time, I began reading the Bible in an attempt to better justify my agnosticism and disprove the claims of evangelical Christians. I assumed that while the Bible was a classic of literature, it was subject to arbitrary human interpretation and therefore useless in terms of staking out any defensible theological position.  However, my assumption turned out to be false and my reading project backfired - resulting in my becoming persuaded that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead. Since that time, I have believed that Jesus is Lord and that the Bible is His word. Though this faith of mine has not always been strong, it animates me today more than ever.

As for general education, I received a B.S. in Business Administration with a major in Management from the University of South Carolina in Columbia (1972). As for theological education, I received a Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri (1986) and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California (1993).

I had a business career from 1972 to 1979, based in Columbia. I then entered seminary and became involved in full-time ministry from 1979 to 1994, based in St. Louis. I then resumed my business career, working variously out of Columbia, Charlotte, and Milwaukee, until I fully retired from business in 2015.

I spend my retirement in South Carolina studying the Bible and writing about it. More specifically, I study the Lord, seek to do His will, and write about the things I've learned in the process. I have no special gifting or calling. I'm just a person who's had opportunity to read the Bible…and report to you on it.