Biography

I am from St Louis, Missouri, the home of the St Louis Cardinals, Ted Drewes frozen custard, and Imo’s pizza – all St Louis institutions. 

I was raised in a devout Roman Catholic home. My parents worked hard to make sure I received a good Catholic education, and I am very grateful for the foundation it laid in my life. Even when I tried to be an agnostic in college, I always knew there was a God I could not escape from, no matter how hard I tried.

I went to university at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau. During my sophomore year, I had an encounter with Jesus Christ that changed my life forever. Soon after, I knew I wanted to serve God in vocational ministry.

I met Aleta a few days after my conversion. We worked together at Sunny Hill Motor Lodge and Restaurant. She was a waitress and banquet host, and I was a painter and general gopher. We had many fun experiences during that time and gradually fell in love.

We married the week after my graduation and started our life together in ministry two days after our honeymoon. Six months later, we received a call from a pastor in Knoxville, Tennessee who was in need of an associate pastor. On October 25, 1979 we packed everything we owned in our 1974 Audi Fox and drove to Knoxville. We stayed there four years.

Over the next twelve years, we served in various university towns throughout the Southeast. We also had four children: Samuel (Knoxville 1982), Joseph (Gainesville 1984), Catherine (Atlanta 1986), and Jessica (Athens 1988).

In 1990, we returned to St Louis. During the next nine years, I traveled extensively, developed a leadership training school, and produced a number of multi-media presentations.

In 1999, we returned to the South and to the relationships that had meant so much to us in our early years of ministry. Initially, I split my time between the Every Nation church in Murfreesboro and Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). But after two years, I devoted myself entirely to ENLI.

I am currently the Director of Leadership Development for Every Nation Ministries. I lead the team that produces the ENLI curriculum for North America and that trains vocational ministers to do university and high school ministry.

We live in Franklin, Tennessee, and our four children are still in the area. Samuel married Ms. Kerren Fahrbach last April and is enjoying married life. He works as a graphic designer (he designed this site). Joseph is a junior at Middle Tennesse State University. Katy is taking time out from cosmotology school to serve at an AIDS orphanage in South Africa. And Jessica is a freshman at Lipscomb University.