My Desire to Help Pastors

My History

My 180-degree shift to becoming a Christ follower began in 1999. In 2001 I married my high school sweetheart whom I now share the joy of raising two teenage daughters. Since then, my wife and I have served in multiple ministries as ordained ministers. One of these roles was as an associate pastor supporting marriages and families through discipling and counseling. During that time, God moved on my heart to pursue a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. God’s intent for my life was to pursue a professional level of understanding in this field for two reasons: To become a more effective counselor and to de-stigmatize the field of mental health for Christians.

As a staff pastor, your role in serving can seem endless. At most churches, a pastor can have multiple responsibilities, some of which may include counseling.

If you love counseling, that’s great! However, there may be times when you get stuck with an individual or couple. Oftentimes this is related to trauma or attachment issues the individual experienced in the past. Unraveling this level of complexity can be a daunting task. I want to partner with you to meet this need not just as a professional therapist but as a God-fearing, Christ-follower who believes the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is skilled at integrating therapeutic practices that align with His Word.

After marrying my wife, I quickly realized how much more difficult it was to live and share space with a partner. While I did not replicate the worst tendencies that my father demonstrated growing up, I definitely contributed to a less than pleasant marriage. Wherever we were serving, there was usually someone to disciple us. Light to moderate improvement was made, but it was slow going. When I entered my Counseling program at Liberty University, I simultaneously began individual therapy with a Christian counselor. I discovered how my broken past growing up shaped how I think, feel, and respond to challenges in the present. By integrating God’s Word that parallels certain therapeutic principles, I learned how to deconstruct my past, understand how it impacted my present, and learn how to rewrite a new future…one that allowed me to throw off the weights that hindered me (Hebrews 12:1-3). This is how I experienced my greatest transformation as a Christian and why I am a strong advocate for Christian counseling.