Grace Ministries International

Bio:

I met the God of the Bible when I was 18 years old and I have never recovered from it. How wonderful that the uncreated Creator would first introduce Himself to me as my heavenly “Father”. This intimate knowing of God as Father has been the joy and strength of my life.

I grew up poor in a broken home. When I was 8 years old my dad left. With a broken heart and the responsibility that came from being the oldest of five children, it didn’t take long for emptiness, confusion and sadness to fill my life.

Soon the feelings of emptiness and loneliness drove me to find temporary solutions through leading and succeeding by being popular in school, and excelling in sports and music. Yet, deep down inside my heart, I felt bored, unfulfilled, and afraid; thinking there has to be more to life than this.

I did not grow up going to church; in fact I had always been turned off by religion. For me, church and God, were those weird people who wore outdated cloths and lacked skills, abilities and talent, so that’s why they needed God and attended church.

However, God started to get my attention through my uncle’s life, which was radically changed after coming to Christ. His testimony and a car accident I was in soon led to my surrender to Jesus as Savior and Lord. I immediately found myself incredibly excited to read the Bible every day and night.

Not long after coming to Christ I met my best friend. We would end up graduating from College together and getting married. I went on to seminary and graduated with a masters in theology (ThM).

While at Seminary, two friends began to teach my bride and me the message of the grace of God for living. I began to understand with more clarity, that the Bible was God's love letter to me, not simply a book to be mastered or to be read just so I would have a blessed life and ministry.

Upon graduating from seminary God would call me to the role of pastor and church planter for 13 years. While on a mission’s trip to Europe, I was awakened in the middle of the night with a deep burden and a dream to teach the grace of God for living to the church worldwide. So I rolled out of bed onto my knees, grabbed a pen and paper and began to spend hours writing down everything that was coming to my mind. As I wrote, I felt such a deep love and concern for the bride of Christ.

That night in 1990 the idea of grace international was born in my heart. God also showed me that night that He is “G.R.A.C.E”! A God who Restores, Accepts, Cares and Encourages His people.

Soon Father made it clear to me that my Life Mission could be summed up in Acts 20:24: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”

Father has been preparing me for this ministry of Grace by taking me through seasons of brokenness so that I might come to the end of myself. After a five year run in a very successful church plant everything fell apart in my life. The amazing and exciting dream I envisioned and experienced was short lived and turned into a nightmare. Hurting and being hurt, pain, humiliation, disillusionment, betrayal, power struggles, confusion and fear became my reality. I lost everything and felt utterly hopeless!

During this journey God would use a season of reflection, counseling and transformation to show me His gentle mercy, unending love, amazing grace and healing power in my life. I was able to experience wonderful freedom, new joy and greater understanding of God, people and myself.

Today with new clarity, I have come to believe that first and foremost leaders are servants of God, then stewards and finally we graduate as bond slaves of God to the body of Christ. Jesus said, those who wish to be first shall be last, let the greatest among you become the least.

In Matthew 20:28 Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life away as a ransom for many.”

I am so pleased to be a part of Grace Ministries International focused on identity in Christ leadership.

Imagine the wonder of God’s love being manifested through men and women who have learned to lead from His Life, living in and through them. The church and the world are in desperate need for more Christ-sufficient servants not more self-sufficient scholars.

A leadership that finds their strength in weakness and helplessness and understands that it’s sole motivation and power to lead is from their deep love relationship with the God of the Bible, who says, you can call me Father!