As a part of the Preparation for Ministry process I wrote this one page biographical sketch. I've edited it slightly, since some things that were then anticipated are now in the past.
I was born and raised in Rock Spring Presbyterian Church. My father had been a member since he was ten years old. My parents were youth advisors and were married in that church, my sister and I were born, baptised and confirmed, and married in that church, my two children were born and baptised in that church, my mother died and her funeral was in that church, my father remarried in that church, and later died and was buried in that church. In that sense, my church experience is deep, but not very broad.
I went through the city schools of Decatur and did very well: Star Student, Salutatorian, Governor’s Honors Program in Mathematics, All State Chorus, Student Body President. Many of my friends were children of seminary students and professors at Columbia Theological Seminary and Agnes Scott College. I am an Eagle Scout from Troop 175 in Decatur. My interests evolved from architecture to abstract mathematics. I attended Davidson College under the Dual Degree Program. At Davidson, I majored in physics, then transferred to Georgia Tech and majored in Mechanical Engineering.
It turns out I didn’t do anything with either degree. Computers were hot and I never got around to looking for an engineering job because people kept recruiting me for computer jobs. Over thirty years, I pieced together the equivalent of a computer science degree: I had jobs in programming, database, networking; I applied knowledge of numerical algorithms and computer chip architecture, I learned Software Development lifecycles, risk management and project management, and I re-learned all of those consulting disciplines in the form of Agile software development. Nowhere along the way did I choose a job or career for myself. This purposelessness has led me to seek a career change.
In my lifetime at Rock Spring, half of the pastors ended their term in conflict, including three of the last four. I have seen the larger demographic decline that the whole denomination has, but played out more dramatically and acutely in my own congregation. I developed a desire to help congregations prevent and heal from conflict. This desire gave me a direction to follow in my career change, and my desire to answer it theologically drove me to seminary. When I identified that I have always had a passion for both Word and Sacrament, I registered as an Inquirer.
In my years of seminary, I had those passions validated. I enjoyed Greek and loved Hebrew, and nothing quickened my spirit quite so much as exegesis. Unfortunately, my curriculum was very crowded, and I was not able to pursue the Justice, Peace and Conflict Transformation concentration at Candler. In lieu of those electives, I wrote a thesis on congregational conflict as a deep self-study in the subject that brought me to seminary. As I have learned more about Systems theory and Narrative Theology and Narrative Therapy, I have become more and more convinced that the work I feel called to do is not best accomplished in anything like a consulting relationship, but must be done in the context of a longer term, emotionally-connected pastoral relationship.
