Grace Baptist Church

At the age of nine, I received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. A lifelong native of Laurinburg, I graduated from Scotland High School in 1988 and, four years later, from St. Andrews Presbyterian College with a B.A. in Business Administration. God called me into vocational Christian ministry in 1994. It was an overwhelming and humbling call, because twenty years earlier, I suffered a diving accident that left me a quadriplegic. In 1998, I graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky with a Master of Divinity in Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth and a Ph.D. in Christian Preaching three years later.

Although God implanted the vision to start a church in Laurinburg during my second semester of seminary, I finally got the courage to follow His leading in 2007. God gifted me in the areas of administration, teaching, and leadership to serve His people and gave me a passion to see the unchurched come to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, grow in their faith, and positively impact others around them for God's glory. I also serve as Visiting Lecturer of Religion at UNC-Pembroke, where I teach Introduction to Religion and Introduction to New Testament.

My other interests include pulling for my beloved North Carolina Tar Heels, watching NASCAR (I'm a big Jeff Gordon fan), reading, and channel surfing!

"But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24 NASB).