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About

I'm from a small East Texas town living in the big Mid West, namely, Chicago. I moved here in the summer of 2006 with my wife since May of 2004. I drug her all the way up here nearly 1000 miles from either of our families. It has been a bit challenging at times, but rewarding at others. We have made friends that will be such for the rest of our lives and strengthened previous friendships even more.

I graduated from East Texas Baptist University in December 2004 with a B.A. in Religion and minor in C.I.S. (if you don't know what that means, it isn't important). After a stint working for the Evil Coca-Cola Corporation, I decided I needed to get my life in order and start on my advanced education that I knew I was going to do someday anyway. After searching for an acceptable Seminary to attend (believe it or not, I don't think they are all acceptable, even some of the prominent ones), I decided the best bet for me, my wife, and our future as ministers was to attend Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (affectionately referred to as Teds. [Interestingly enough, there is a fantastic Mexican Food restaurant in Oklahoma City by the same name]). That is where I am now, and the following is some of my story.

Blog - see all 14

It's back!!! Jun 13, 2008

I got my Xbox 360 back today, plugged up, and I'm ready to go!!

I shipped my Xbox off yesterday (June 4) Jun 5, 2008

Not much really to add to the title, but I hope it gets back soon. Oh, how I miss you Oblivion character guy, Master Chief, Liberty City, and St. Louis Rams.

NO!!!!! NOT AGAIN!!!! May 27, 2008

If you keep up with this blog, and I think there is one of you that reads it occasionally, you will remember that almost a year ago this week, I posted a blog about my Xbox 360. Well, it cratered again today. Nearly a year to the exact date that it did last time. …

Quite Possibly the best History of Christianity Book EVER! May 14, 2008

In my frantic attempt to pass my History of Christianity final this past month, I picked up a book that was WAY shorter than our text book , but covered all the same things, and did it pretty well too. The book is entitled A Short History of Christianity by …

History of Christianity and a HUGE cup of coffee. Apr 7, 2008

Currently, I'm sitting in History of Christianity. I have always wished this type of class was about, oh, I don't know, Christianity. It would be great to have a class about the development of thought and how the church represented itself throughout history. But …

Last Book Read

Confessions of a Reformission Rev by Mark Driscoll

I found this book to be a little of everything. It was practical, informational, funny, and uncomfortable. In this book, Driscoll describes the ups and downs of the church he planted in Seattle. He talk a lot about the mistakes he made and the things that he did that worked. For this type of stuff, I am grateful for somebody willing to write plainly and entertainingly enough that I could actually make it through the book.

Conversely, some of the things that Driscoll did in his congregation and advocates made me a little uncomfortable. Things like running people away from the church for not being willing to serve in it. Now, I certainly agree that people should be willing to serve, but I'm still not sure that running them off is necessarily the right thing to do. Secondly, if you were to look up Driscoll on Wikipedia, then you would find that he is best known for two things. The first I will address momentarily, the second is his view on gender roles. Of all the things a minister could be known for, I feel like gender roles is oddly misplaced or something like that. For instance, I don't necessarily agree with John Piper (like I don't agree with Driscoll on this issue), but I respect him for being known for his view of God's Sovereignty and Glory. These are a lot more central to doctrine than gender roles.

The first thing he is known for is Missiology. I loved these parts of the book. The fact that he instills in his people the desire to reach people outside the church walls is fantastic. The fact that he can run that huge church with less paid staff than my home church of 300 is amazing. People there really get it, and that is wonderful.

To top things off, Driscoll recently came to my University and did a seminar of Biblical preaching. A lot of what he say about the methodology and practicality of preaching really resounded with me. However, he let his view of gender roles be known very well. He also talked about not being afraid of telling the truth of the gospel. He isn't afraid to be offensive and say things in the harshest way possible. After he had gone, our school newspaper did an article on him interviewing some of the students on campus. One of the students said that the most offensive thing to them was the fact that Driscoll felt he had to add offense to the gospel and that "the Gospel is offensive enough by itself, it doesn't need us to add offense to it." This, I thought might sum up most of my disagreements with Driscoll. I thought this was extremely insightful. The statement was made by a young lady.