Veritas ☩ Bonitas ☩ Pulchritudo

Born and raised in a small town nestled amongst the Appalachian Mountains in Southern West Virigina, now living in Morgantown, WV, with a 15 year stint in Louisville, KY in between. I’m an ordained deacon in the Anglican Diocese of Christ our Hope (AD Hope), a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America.

I have a BSR in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism from West Virginia University (2006), and an MDiv in Christian Ministry from Southern Seminary (2011).

I currently work full-time as a software engineer, as well as serving bi-vocationally as a pastor. I enjoy good art, good coffee, and good conversation. Theologically, my interests lie in theological anthropology, liturgical and sacramental theology, beauty, and creation. I’m an advocate for conservationism, and my BSR focused on natural resources and sustainable tourism.

Some of my major influences include Abraham Kuyper, Eugene Peterson, and Wendell Berry.

I’ve been married to my wife, Samantha, for 13 years. We have two children, 7 and 5 years-old, and two cats named Vex’ahlia and Vax’ildan¹

Ecclesia Anglicana Appalachia

In June 2022, my family and I moved to Morgantown, WV, to help start a new Anglican church in the area. This move culminated a long journey of feeling that God was calling me back to West Virginia.

I moved to Louisville, KY, in 2007 for serminary. That same fall I started attending Sojourn Community Church, a place that I served at until 2019, when I stepped down from being a pastor and moved my membership to Grace Anglican Church after becoming convinced of Anglican theology, polity, and practice. Shortly thereafter I began the ordination process.

Early in my ordination process, my diocese announced a focused effort towards planting churches in West Viginia. Through the work of Hope Church, Redeemer Parkersburg, and Christ the King Anglican Church, Mission Hope: WV was born.

Mission Hope is a Gospel-centered, Bible-saturated, God-glorifying, Jesus-worshiping, Spirit-led, Anglican church planting initiative of the Diocese of Christ Our Hope in West Virginia.
missionhopewv.org²

Morgantown, WV, was quickly recognized as a place where God seemed to be at work, and fertile ground for a new Anglican church.

For years I had sensed God calling me back to my home state. With the diocesan announcment, my wife and I began to discern and pray as to whether God was calling us to Morgantown. Within months, God so orchestrated events in our life as to give us a strong affirmative answer.

Today, we gather with a number of interested and committed people for weekly Evening Prayer. Out of this gathering a robust and healthy core group has formed, and we are looking forward to what God has in store for Mission Hope: Morgantown.

Our group is currently under the leadership of Fr. Ben Sharpe, Canon Missioner of West Virginia, and Fr. Derek Roberts, our priest-in-charge, rector of Hope Church, and dean of AD Hope’s Appalachian Deanery.

1 Thessalonians 4.11

…aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands.