A native of Phoenix of Arizona, I grew up in a home with God-fearing parents. We lived in the Maryvale community of west Phoenix while Daddy was stationed at Luke Air Force Base. I was raised there with my siblings and graduated from Maryvale High School. I went on to Arizona State University as a first generation college graduate, finishing with a BS in Economics.

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My family: I’m sitting on Daddy’s lap.

5 yrs old, dressed up for Easter.

11 yrs old, at my Baptism.

I was a church kid. Faith was important in our household. While being an overachiever in school and sports, I lived my childhood on the church pew. I grew up in the Church of God In Christ (COGIC), a predominantly black religious community of churches. I served in the local church for as long as I can remember, both willingly and unwillingly, thanks to my mother! But as a child, I knew that God had a calling on my life, and that it would be unique. Living in two worlds was common for people like me, where home life and Sunday life were entirely different (segregated) from weekday life. Little did I know that God was laying the foundation for something bigger.

I finally accepted God’s calling while in college, and said YES to ministry. I would go on to serve in nearly every capacity the local church had to offer over the next 20 years, including Ordained Minister, Elder, Teacher, Trustee, and Musician, doing all of these rolls voluntarily while continuing my banking career. I also served in regional and state roles within the denomination. Furthering my education, I enrolled in seminary and began taking classes part time. God blessed my ministry.

Seminary graduation; pictured here with Dr. Wayne Grudem

While continuing to work in my banking career and attending seminary part time, my family and I were led in the interim to begin attending Scottsdale Bible Church, an evangelical church in Scottsdale, Arizona near our home. I began substitute teaching as a volunteer from time to time.

One day after teaching a Bible study at the church, a staff pastor met with me and asked where I felt like God was leading me. I told him, “I believe God has called me to play a role in racially unifying the Church.” He stared at me for a few moments, eyes wide with amazement. He explained that it “just so happened” that he had been praying about someone to lead a class on this topic that he was looking to have developed. After about a minute or so of explaining, I stopped him mid sentence and said “I’ll do it.” Baffled, he mentioned it might not work as much as he would like it to work, and that I should be prepared in case it didn’t. “It’ll work,” I told him. Then he was concerned no one would attend on such short notice with the upcoming kickoff of classes and small groups. “They’ll come,” I assured him. God was already working it out.

The class had its challenges, but it was successful. The material provided was a great start. But for lasting transformational change, additional material was required. So I created my own curriculum and added it to the class. True to the goal of being grassroots, it was taught with the average church member in mind. But then staff workers began attending. Then, pastors began attending after hearing about it from other staff and church members. Elders began attending. They all were curious and wanted to learn about this, because they, too, see that there’s division in the Church. They just weren’t sure how to approach the topic.

Then, IT HAPPENED. Race was thrown into the news headlines of America, like it had in previous generations. Law enforcement shootings, community unrest, stand your ground, death, terms like “anti-racism, social justice, diversity/equity/inclusion” permeated the airwaves, along with questions of lives mattering: all of these and more came rushing into our television screens and social media feeds. I could hear the drum beating loudly from my black community, including the black church. But in the white community, and in particular the church, the silence was deafening. Why? Why wasn’t the response stronger? Why did it seem like no one from the Church as a whole speaking up?

It wasn’t making sense to me, and it was rather frustrating. Here I am at this church with thousands of people in attendance that don’t look like me, and it felt like no one was addressing the elephant in the room. Why? That was the question I had. While I understood that faith-based activism within white churches had typically excluded race, I reached out to church leadership explaining my concerns. This gave me an opportunity to pull my thoughts together and speak to the issues at hand. But looking back on it, I realize now that God was working in the midst of this whole situation. The reason why so many church members and leaders were attending the class I was teaching was because they, too, saw that there was racial division in our nation, and specifically within the Church in America. They were just unsure how to approach it, and there was a lot they just didn’t know or understand. A ministry was being birthed in me. The church heard my concerns and was supportive of this.

From this endeavor over time, after dozens of iterations and formats of curriculum and lots of prayer, The Church And Race® was born. I believe God intends to reach the entire Church with the message of unity. He desires for the Church to be One. He’s not coming back for two churches: He’s coming back for One Church. I look into the future seeing interracial relationships in the Church, multiracial churches, and cross-cultural worship experiences as just some of the benefits of the Church embracing racial unity.

I have since completed my M.Div degree from Phoenix Seminary. I served as an Elder at Scottsdale Bible Church where my family and I have attended for 10 years, and I became a pastor on staff in 2023. My wife Janet has been with me through all of this. We met during our high school years and married while in college. Nearly 28 years later, we have two kids and reside in Scottsdale, AZ.

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