My father was a pastor and like many “pk’s” I made a profession of faith at an early age. Also, like many pk’s, it was only an empty profession as I was only seeking the approval of family and friends. I lived the first twenty years of my life struggling with doubt and fear and finally responded to the Holy Spirit and accepted Christ as my Savior when I was about twenty-five.
In the fall of 1990, I enrolled at ABC for the first time. I would have to say that I initially chose ABC because both of my parents were graduates of the school. I was still lost and to be honest I was a very poor student. I barely completed the first semester and decided that I would make a better soldier than student and I joined the Army in January of 1991. For the next twenty years, I took classes through ABC rather sporadically and ultimately completed my degree requirements online during a deployment to Iraq in 2009-2010. Yes….it took me twenty years to complete my college degree, but I am glad that I did.
There are many great things that I could say about my experience at ABC both as a resident and as an online student. I received great Theological training that has kept me grounded as a pastor. I built relationships that have blossomed into lifelong friendships that have been a tremendous source of encouragement over the last fourteen years of ministry. I could go on and on about the school, but as I reflect on my experience there, what truly makes ABC unique is the staff. While some of the names and faces have changed over the years, I have been blessed and amazed to see this core group of faithful professors, administrators, and office staff return year after year with the sole purpose of investing in the lives of the next generation of church leaders. Even when I was unsettled and unsure of what God was doing in my own life and even after disappearing for years at a time they welcomed me back and invested in my life and ministry.
Since graduating from ABC, I have left the Army and returned to Seattle, the city I grew up in, to plant Vona Church. Ballard, the neighborhood in which we are planting, is the fastest growing neighborhood in Seattle. My family and church plant team believe that the key to reaching the city of Seattle is by reaching the diverse neighborhoods in Seattle. With that in mind, we are planting Vona as the first in a network of neighborhood church plants. We celebrated our first year as a church in April of 2015 and are helping establish a second church plant in a neighborhood just south of us.
