Faith Community Church
New Richmond, Wisconsin 54017
715.246.3763

• Education: B.A. Moody Bible Institute I’ve taken some grad school classes at Moody and Trinity but finishing the degree wasn’t a high enough priority for me.
• Experience: We helped start a church in Iowa in the early 80’s. I pastored a church while studying at Moody. I also worked with Slavic Gospel Association and The Bible League. I was training church planters in Moldova when God impressed on me the vision to plant a church in a smaller community. We connected with a strong mother church, moved to Wisconsin and started Faith Community in 1997.
• Comment to those looking at my sermons: Removed from the presence of God and the support of the other teams that God uses during corporate worship these messages seem pretty lame to me. God seems to be pleased to use me in spite of myself.
• Sermon or series that made a difference: The last one.
• One of my favorite illustrations: I understand Eskimo’s hunting for wolves would coat a knifeblade with blood that would quickly freeze. When the handle was buried in the snow a little water poured around the handle would freeze the knife in place. Later as wolves discover the knife their taste for blood would cause them lick the knife. Soon the blood that was so tasty was mingled with their own and their appetite would literally consume them.
• Family: Jill and I have been married for 31 years. Our son Zac is 29 and lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife. Our daughter Jasmine died of cystic fibrosis in 1979 at the age of 5 1/2 months. Our daughter Moriah (age 7) was added to our family thorough adoption in 1998. We were empty nesters for about three years before Moriah came on the scene. The result is that we are raising our second only child.
• What my parents think of my sermons: Is this really church?
• What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons: He’s not James MacDonald.
• Best advice given to me about preaching: It is better to be understandable than impressive.
• Books that have had an impact: Desiring God by John Piper The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan A Christian Manifesto by Fracis Schaeffer The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Hobbies: Can I have hobbies? I enjoy playing drums, reading and spending time with my family. My wife would probably say Ebay is a hobby for me.
• If I could Preach one more time, I would say...: Our future depends on God and that makes it good.
• Something funny that happened while preaching: When my son was age 2-3 he was wrestling with my wife during a message. I stopped in the middle of the message asked to be excused for a moment. (Our song leader jumped in with a song.) I took my son into a side room. Took corrective action and returned to the pulpit. His behavior changed dramatically from that moment on.
• What I want on my tombstone: He mattered