Pastor’s Page

I am so grateful for your interest and my hope and prayer is that you feel the presence and love of God when you worship and participate in the life of God through Nameoki UMC. We have lots of opportunities to connect and participate, from Sunday morning worship, Sunday School, and Bible studies, to United Methodist Women, grief support, prayer group/time, handbells, missions and outreach, fellowship and much more. Come and see!

I have been in full-time ministry as a United Methodist pastor since graduating from Duke Divinity School in 2003. I have served as an associate pastor in three larger (1400 member) suburban/small-town churches and as a solo pastor in three “charges”. I have five units of chaplaincy training (1500 hours) in urban ministry crisis, homeless, and transitional housing, as well as hospital and hospice-based training. I also have training in Christian prayer ministry for inner healing and love to help people find freedom and fullness of life in Christ.

My passion in ministry is helping people to learn how to read and understand God’s Word in the Bible, to pray, to hear and encounter God the Holy Spirit, to be healed and learn to pray for others to be healed in body, mind, and spirit, and to participate with God in God’s Kingdom and redeeming work in the world. I just completed my Doctor of Ministry at United Theological Seminary in 2021 on Revival in the Wesleyan Tradition: Re-introducing Wesleyans to the Holy Spirit John Wesley Encountered.

Ministry is my “second” career, but first in my heart. After graduating from Rice University with a B.A. and M.Accounting, my first career was as a CPA in public accounting and healthcare financial management. I was on the way up in my career, and was building a family, but I had wandered from God. I grew up going to church, but I had stopped attending as a young adult. The journey God has taken me on since then has been amazing. God is so real, so powerful, so gracious and full of love, not the kind of love the world has, but a love that is complete, a love that knows each of us completely and fully–how we were created, our purpose, our weaknesses, even our secret thoughts of our hearts — who still loves us exactly as we are, and loves us enough to help us to be all we were created to be, to have fullness of God’s life, love, peace, joy in us.

I look forward to hearing from you, meeting you, getting to know you, and sharing the journey of faith!