ABOUT ME

At this stage of senior life I think of what I am leaving behind that others can use. It is not what I have, but it is also that is in a place, where others can access it.

Early in my life I wrestled with the question, “What is going to matter 100 years from now? At some point I concluded that two items would last – The Word of God and people. The best investment of my life would combine the two. I made a doulos commitment to the Lord as a teen-ager. So, what is a doulos commitment? The term doulos designates a slave. He obeys all God’s commandments. This slavery is not harsh treatment. The one who calls me a slave, also calls me His friend (John 15:15). I found that the best way for me to be a doulos was to teach the Word of God and to teach each to be a doulos as well.

MY BIO

Education:

• Biola University, B.A. cum laude, English, 1964
• Dallas Theological Seminary, Th.M., New Testament Greek

Pastorate:

Served in four pastorates,  each in a very different demographic.

• Silver Acres Community Church, Santa Ana CA, 1968-1973 (Chicano barrio)
• Julian Community Baptist Church, Julian CA, 1973-1984 (small, mountain, tourist town)
• Valley Bible Church, Grand Junction CO, 1984-1987 (small city)
• Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Santa Ana CA, 1987-2017 (suburban city)

Oversaw various ministries at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa:

• Tuesday School

  A laymen’s Bible school, 6-week terms, 2 sets of classes each evening, 4 terms in a year.

• Home Fellowships (Pastoral oversight during the 90’s)

  • Men’s Ministry – 5 divisions, each with its own leadership for most of the 1990s
  • Monthly Saturday Breakfast - Guest pastor speaker
  • Men’s Bible study – homework, small group, big group with teacher

• Sports Ministry

  Team competition in various sports

• Men-s Conference

  Pastoral oversight at Anaheim Convention Center (Some years over 8,000 attendance)

• Support Groups

  All groups meeting together for an expository teaching on a passage relating to one of 14 principles we had identified. Then we broke up into groups including Separated/Divorced, People-Pleasers, Anger Management, Men’s Sexual Purity, Bereavement, Sexually Abused Women, Sexually Abused Men, Women under Stress, Nicotine Addiction, Loved Ones of Chemically Dependent, and Caregivers.

• Retreats

  Twice annually (one a father-son)

• Men’s Share Groups

  Monthly restaurant groups of 4 men each. Each would share a devotional thought from a verse and a prayer request.

• Calvary Teams

  A full-time 3 terms in a year residential school at our Castle in the Austrian Alps.  We trained young people for missionary work in eastern Europe. I ran the school from Costa Mesa.

• School of Ministry

  Founded and directed n alternative seminary. All students were full-time every day 7-10.

As the millennium turned, I gave the other groups to others, so I could focus on School of Ministry.