First Parish Congregational Church
Wakefield, Massachusetts 01880
781-245-1644

• Education: B.A., B.D., M.A., D.Min, graduate of the US Army Command & General Staff College, C.P.E.
• Experience: 26 years of active military service as a US Army Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel), to include service in Germany, Korea, Hungary (NATO Operation Joint Endeavor), and Saudi Arabia (Desert Storm), then 17 years as Pastor of Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus MA, Interim Minister at First Parish Congregational, Wakefield MA
• Comment to those looking at my sermons: The discipline of preparing a manuscript (rather than an outline) is important because our message is important. The act of preaching is too important to speak extemporaneously. We can and do add things that "come to us" while preaching, but we come fully prepared. My final copy is that which I prepare after having preached, adding thoughts that I added in the pulpit. I then email my sermons to my mailing list, even to those who were present Sunday (for reinforcement), extending my ministry.
• Sermon or series that made a difference: I’ve always conducted sermon series, which I think gave my congregation a structure and focus.
• Family: Wife--Laura
• Best advice given to me about preaching: Be substantive but avoid professional, theological terms (unless you explain/define them). A sermon is to both inform and inspire, and must include exposition and application, in the same fashion as Paul’s epistles. The worst style of preaching is the one you use the most.
• Books that have had an impact: Reversed Thunder & Answering God by Eugene Peterson Today’s Gospel by Walter Chantry The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis How Should We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer From Fear to Faith by D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones The Search for Compassion by Andrew Purves Evangelicals on the Cantebury Trail by Robert Webber Our Father Abraham by Marvin Wilson The God Who Loves You, by Peter Kreeft Decision-Making & the Will of God, by Garry Friessen Gilead by Marilyn Robinson The Crucifixion by Fleming Rutledge
• Hobbies: Guitar, Kayaking
• If I could Preach one more time, I would say...: God is in control of everything--we can rest in the safety of His hand and trust His sovereign purpose. We may not know what tomorrow may hold, but we can know the One who holds tomorrow.
• What I want on my tombstone: pro deo et patria

• Cliftondale Congregational Church