I served as Associate Pastor for nearly four years in full-time pastoral ministry at a historic Baptist church in Southern California, and this experience has helped foster and galvanize my spiritual formation and academic work. Part of my service in pastoral ministry included creating and curating numerous Bible studies at church on various topics including textual criticism (cheekily called The Scriptorium), the Book of Revelation, finding Christ in the Psalms, the Gospel of John, and most recently the Book of James. These classes occurred both in-person as well as on Zoom.

To take the most recent example, I hosted on Zoom a manuscript walkthrough of the Book of James, and part of the complication was assisting several of our elderly congregants (delivering a physical copy of the manuscript, getting them set up on their phone, etc.). It was my mission to include as many people as possible and I was willing to do whatever needed to be done to involve them.  Part of my work at church was being adaptable and learning how to deal with problems as they arise within a theological, pastoral, or technological setting. This experience was deeply formational for my calling, and I believe I am equipped to facilitate and empower people in their calling to serve Christ

I am currently a part-time Ph.D. student at Ridley College Melbourne in New Testament and immensely enjoyed the process of rigorous learning in a delightfully passionate evangelical environment. I have published numerous works in peer-reviewed journals and am continuing to acquire the requisite humility from that peer-review process. I hope to foster that same joyful humility in teaching and guiding students as we seek—as a church family following after the calling of Christ—to be an active people, thinking theologically about everything and living biblically in a world that desperately needs a new vision of salvation and hope.

My academic work has forced me to be reflective of needs, ideas, and questions that arise from daily life—including the work of ministry. Academic work divorced from the grounding of ministry is an exercise in failure.