About

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my website. There may be any number of reasons you’re here, from the intentional to the random, but I don’t consider that an accident. If you’re looking for resources for your own Christian faith or your ministry, I hope you’ll find something beneficial and encouraging here, whether it’s something I recommend or have written.

My Context

It’s often helpful to know a person’s context in order to make better sense of what they say. Currently, I serve as the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Academic Dean, and Professor of Theology at Denver Seminary, which is also my alma mater. It’s been an honor to serve at DenSem since 1998. Prior to that I spend about eight years in pastoral ministry. An even greater privilege has been being married to Sharon since 1981 and delighting in our three adult children, their spouses, and their children.

I’m a native of West Texas (San Angelo, Odessa, and Kermit) but have spent most of my adult life in Colorado. My relentless theological preoccupation is to connect the timeless truth found in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the historic Christian traditions with the practical dimensions of life, faith, and ministry. Professionally, that is often called “theological reflection”. At my core, I’m a teacher and writer, though God has also given me leadership and administrative gifts that are generally not as much fun to use, even if they are just as important. Much of my seminary work has focused on the ministry of mentoring and I’m deeply committed to that type of modest, small-scale investment in people.

Also in the concentric circles of my vocational life (all of this is vocational for me, whether or not it’s part of my paid employment), I love hunting, smoking meat on my Traeger, turning wood on a lathe, redeeming old or broken objects into something useful again (that’s the gearhead in me), hiking, and generally staying fit.

Academic Background

PhD in systematic theology from the University of Manchester, England (under the wise, astute, and godly supervision of Drs. Thomas A. Noble and Murray Rae)

MDiv from Denver Seminary

Publications

Already Sanctified: A Theology of the Christian Life in Light of God’s Completed Work (Baker Academic, 2020)

Surviving the Unthinkable: Choosing to Live After Someone You Love Chooses to Die (Resource, 2015)

The Theology of the Christian Life in J.I. Packer’s Thought: Theological Anthropology, Theological Method, and the Doctrine of Sanctification (Paternoster, 2006)