Maple Grove Christian Church
Charlottesville, Virginia 22911
434-973-2066

• Education: I spend 9 1/2 years in the submarine force of the United States Navy in the nuclear power field. At age 27 I enrolled at Florida Christian College and graduated with a BA in 1992. I graduted from Loch Raven Sr High in Baltimore Maryland in 1978. Home of the best seafood in the world. And the best beach - go O.C.!
• Experience: I have been in full time ministry since December of 1991 serving in 3 churches in Florida and 1 in Georgia before coming to Virginia.
• Comment to those looking at my sermons: If anything I have put down can help you - I think that is sooo awesome! Back in Kindergarten I was told to share and I can think of nothing better than sharing truths of God with fellow believers (but don’t ask me to share chocolate with you - that would be asking too much). Feel free to use all you can - nothing is ever 100% original. And sorry for all the typos.
• Sermon or series that made a difference: A verse by verse study of the Gospel of Matthew.
• Family: I am married to an incredible lady named Lauire who is not only a partner at home but a great partner in ministry, she teaches me much and keeps me on my toes. I have 5 children - Chelsea, John, Leila, Mei-Leigh, Jin-Tao (the two youngest were adopted from China) and I have 7 grandchildren (Zebulon, Micaiah, Micah, Asher, Lucy, Cana, Ezra)
• What my parents think of my sermons: My dad went home to be the Lord in Sept of 1999. My mom went home in August of 2013 but she loved my messages - you know how moms are.
• What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons: I think, she thinks they rock... but that they could be a little shorter. I’m working on that.
• Best advice given to me about preaching: Make sure that you are spending time with God as a first priority - you know what I mean Q.T.’s (quiet times) - it is hard to talk about a personal God if you don’t have a personal relationship to him. I find that when I have been ’hangin’ with God things flow naturally. ALSO when you preach make every effort to do so for God and not the applause of men (I find that to be hard at times). REMEMBER - your job is to put the beauty of the Christ on display not your own or even your churches’.
• Books that have had an impact: Waking The Dead, Signature of Jesus, Seizing Your Divine Moment, ME, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
• Hobbies: Hanging with my wife & kids... Reading books, playing racketball and working out. Watching the NFL.
• If I could Preach one more time, I would say...: There is nothing greater in life then KNOWING Christ. He is all we need.
• Something funny that happened while preaching: Once when I was trying to rent out my house I forgot and left my pager on.. Right in the middle of my sermon it went off (I was talking about materailism) - I turned it off and then acted as though God had just given me a message - the people got a kick out of it.. Also I once preached an entire sermon with my zipper down (I’ve been paranoid about that ever since)
• What I want on my tombstone: He saved nothing for the next life

• faithfulpreaching.com