During my university years I focused on preparing myself a career in either electrical engineering or software development. My goal was to obtain a high-paying job and work my way up the socio-economic ladder. I had a road-map in my mind and was at the beginning stages of my pursuit for financial and social success.

However, God had other plans for my life. In 1991, I attended the NAB Triennial Conference in Milwaukee, WI, as a youth worker. Although I had no intentions of renewing my commitment to God, he reached out to me and touched my life through the youth program. In that short period of time, God made it crystal-clear as to what I was to do with my life. The pieces of my life-puzzle began to come together and my call was becoming more and more coherent as the puzzle began to take shape. Life was not about how many material possessions one could accumulate. It was also not about climbing the social ladder. God’s purpose for my life was to use the gifts he had given me to live a life honoring to him, and to dedicate myself to a ministry which would be of service to his body of believers. To live a life dedicated to the pursuit of God’s agenda.

Teaching as a vocation was not part of my initial calling. I honored my initial call by moving to Sioux Falls and attending North American Baptist Seminary (now Sioux Falls Seminary) as a student in 1991. My call would be refined over the fifteen or so years prior to my service as an Assistant Professor of NT at Sioux Falls Seminary. Between 1991 and 2006, I have had the opportunity to serve in many ministry contexts. During that time, God was testing me, molding me, and refining me for a ministry of academia and teaching. It became clear to me over the years that teaching, research, writing, and mentoring were the ways in which I could best use the gifts which God had given me. Teaching provides me with an opportunity to impact the lives of hundreds of pastors, who, in turn, will impact tens of thousands of other people in communities all around the world.