Staff

First Baptist is a place of great warmth, grace, vitality and love. We are thrilled to call it our church home and I am honored to serve as pastor.

I came to First Baptist in the fall of 2012 from Dallas, Texas, where I served as a pastoral resident at Wilshire Baptist Church. Before that I also served churches in Massachusetts and North Carolina. After graduating from Wake Forest University, I served for two years in the Mississippi Delta through the AmeriCorps at West Tallahatchie County Habitat for Humanity. I’ve also received my MDiv from Harvard Divinity School and completed a unit of CPE at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. I’m currently in the low-res MFA program in creative writing Queen’s University in Charlotte, with a concentration in poetry.

Among my biggest spiritual influences are Fred Craddock, Christian Wiman, Marie Howe, Ross Gay, and a constellation of friends and current and former colleagues. I love poetry, running, the ritual of morning coffee, Wake Forest athletics, Chicago Cubs baseball, and watching in wonder as my children grow.

For me, ministry and church are most exciting when we open ourselves to the “breadth and length and height and depth” of God’s presence and love, and come to see it within our world, our neighbor, and ourselves. When we’re at our best, First Baptist is a place and people where this happens.

My wife Audrey and I grew up in church together in Charlotte, North Carolina and were married in 2008. Audrey is an artist and works for a studio based out of North Carolina. We have three young sons, Billy, Sidney, and MacKaye, and a dog named Moose, who is a good boy.

At the First Baptist Church of Christ I have witnessed and experienced a community of people that exceed the beauty of the building (and the building is beautiful) with their compassion for each other and their neighbors, their work in social justice, their curiosity and creativity. This makes FBCX a community I not only love pastoring, but strongly believe in the mission, inclusivity, intentionality, and identity we share as a church family.

I grew up in central Kentucky. After graduating from Eastern Kentucky University and using my Interior Design degree for a year, I discerned a call to ministry. I attended the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta. Choosing the Global Christianity track that McAfee offered, gave me the opportunity to study missions and spend a semester with CBF field personnel in Bali, Indonesia. Years of work with youth in churches has deepened my love of student ministry, they teach me so much about the radical love of God.My call to ministry is centered around a passion for missions and youth ministry.

I find connection with the Divine through art, dance, and nature. I will likely mention Pickleball or my dog Eliza, and cat Higgins, when given the opportunity. I find home in my parent’s kitchen, in long phone calls with my sister, in the Macon community, in Atlanta and Bali, in pet snuggles, in dancing music, good burgers, Marvel movies, and in adventures with my partner Brent.

First Baptist has been a wonderful home for my wife (Marie) and me since we arrived in 1992. Eventually two boys (Blake and Beau) came our way, and from their first days in the nursery until their transition into adulthood, they were nurtured by the church at every step with love and grace. Marie is a musician also. She sings, teaches voice at Mercer University and maintains a private studio. In my spare time, I am Director of Choral Studies at Mercer (’84 alum). I love college football (I hope to grow up to be a college football coach), attending Mercer University musical and sporting events, working in my yard, and traveling both domestically and abroad.