I was reared in a very solid Christian home in Rockford, IL. My dad was the finest man I ever knew. He and my mom came to Christ when I was a baby, and so in a lot of ways we kids (five of us) grew up together with our parents in Christ. We were part of a fine Baptist church (First Baptist of Rockford) all of my life at home, and we built our lives around that church. All of that is a heritage for which I am profoundly grateful.

My wife, Diane, was also raised by strong and committed Christian parents. We met while I was in seminary, were married in 1970, and have three grown and married children and 12 grandkids.

I graduated from Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in 1968, and from Central Theological Seminary (Minneapolis) with an M. Div. in 1972. I joined the faculty of Pillsbury in 1973, and during the eleven years I taught there I also finished a Th.M. at Central (1983). Our family spent three years in Dallas, during which time I completed the residence requirements fora Th.D. in Bible Exposition. I completed the dissertation in May, 2001 [The Urim and Thummim in Relation to the Old Testament Theocracy], and the degree was conferred in January, 2002.After those years in Dallas, I accepted a position on the faculty of The Master’s College in California, where we served for eleven years.
Most of my professional life has been spent in post-secondary Christian education. I was full-time in the classroom for the 25 years, but during that time have also been involved in a number of other areas on the college campus, primarily project design and development. Furthermore, I have been involved in some sort of local church ministry –both regular in my home church and occasional in various churches –throughout those years.

In the course of the years serving as professor at Masters College, we encountered some remarkable challenges as a family. The Lord has proven Himself faithful in all of those difficulties, but one consequence of those challenges was the persuasion that in order to honor our responsibilities as parents we needed to seek some changes in our lives and ministry. As we prayed about that, God opened up a marvelous door of opportunity with the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry (FOI). In August of 1998 we joined the staff of FOI as National Ministries Representative, and for about five years we were actively engaged in a ministry of writing, teaching and preaching on behalf of FOI.

Everything about the ministry with FOI was a delight, but it involved a great deal of travel. God provided some relief from those demands by leading our family to the Trinity Baptist Church of Pasadena, CA, where I ministered as pastor for three years. In late 2006 my wife and I moved to Westfield, IN (far north Indianapolis) in order to facilitate an itinerant ministry of preaching and teaching, both in the US and abroad, as well as to provide opportunity for writing. Since2009 I have served as Professor of Bible Exposition at Shepherds Seminary in Cary NC.I also served as Recruitment Director for 10 years; Along the way I was used of God to implement the seminary’s Israel Initiative program(provides a study trip to Israel for STS students at the seminary’s expense –i.e., all land-costs underwritten by the school); participated in the development of the seminary’s One-Year Institute Program (fully accredited graduate level 42-unit degree program); and oversaw the design of the Cluster Initiative (remote learning done better in partnership with local churches around the country).In the midst of all of that, over the years my wife and I have developed and led dozens of study trips to Israel.