My earliest years were spent in Northome, MN, but I grew up mostly in Minot, ND (which is even closer to Canada than Thief River Falls). My parents met at the Free Lutheran Bible College (FLBC), and my dad is a Free Lutheran (AFLC) pastor. They faithfully raised me and my six younger siblings in a strong Christian home. By God’s grace, I really can’t remember a time when I didn’t know Jesus.

As I struggled with some doubts about the existence of God in junior high, He used the beauty of creation at a youth convention to strengthen my confidence that He was the Designer behind it all. Throughout my childhood, I was very self-reflective and questioned whether my faith was strong enough, or whether I had repented well enough, or loved God passionately enough, etc. In high school, God helped draw my attention away from my performance and the quality of my faith, to the finished work of Christ—the object of my faith! As I followed my parents’ footsteps and attended FLBC after high school, God further reinforced for me the freedom and security found in the Gospel. I remember one professor stating, “You can’t make God any happier with you than He already is in Christ.”  

After Bible college, I went to Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM), where I met Cortney through Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ). We got married after Cortney graduated with her nursing degree, and we lived in Fargo for two additional years while I finished my degree in public relations. So began many years of Cortney’s earning power supporting my habitual schooling.

During my final year at MSUM, God gave me an excitement for pastoral ministry. I realized that the Gospel is most effectively spread by Christians who naturally live out their faith and lovingly develop relationships within their daily lives, to point people to Jesus. As a pastor, I get to equip believers for that kind of organic, yet intentional ministry.

From there, I attended the Free Lutheran Theological Seminary (FLTS) and received a Master of Divinity (M.Div.). After seminary, I served as the pastor of United Lutheran Church (ULC) in the small agricultural community of Laurel, NE, for five and a half years. We moved there with our two oldest daughters (Aleithia and Selah). By the time we left, we had gained twins (Jubilee and Ezra) and one more (Shiloh). During our years at ULC, God added several young families to the church. Many of them cherished growing together as disciples, and as parents, through a small group we hosted in our home.  

While pastoring ULC, I decided to pursue further leadership training through a Doctor of Ministry program at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS). Through that training, I did develop as a leader, but I also developed a non-Lutheran conviction on baptism, which complicated things for my ministry future. God eventually led us to pursue church planting through a two-year residency at First City Church in Bellevue, NE.

The residency was a valuable time of training for church planting and refining my philosophy of pastoral leadership. It also proved to be an intense season for our family, which added to some pre-existing weariness. In our second year, Cortney and I went through a church-planter assessment process that affirmed our planting plans and abilities, but also helped us admit to ourselves our level of weariness. Shortly after, we decided we did not have the raw energy needed for the intensive ministry of leading a church plant, and that doing so would not be healthy for our family.

And so began a season of seeking God for what He had next for us, eventually leading us to the Associate Pastor of Family Ministry position at the Free Church. We have learned that God often gets us from point A to point B by a route that is less direct than we would hope. Yet along that route, He does important work within us, teaching us to abide more deeply in Him, and preparing us for the destination He is bringing us to. We are excited for the next chapter that God has for us and for the Free Church.