Biography
In spiritual direction or supervision, the culture(s) and context(s) you live in matter, because they affect the way you see things and the values you try to live by. As we meet, I try to keep your specific context in mind.
In case it matters to you, my cultures and contexts include:
In case it matters to you, my cultures and contexts include:
- Married to Jennifer who works in global education, and parent to 2 adult sons who work in technology.
- Since 2013, a core adjunct professor of spiritual direction at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, where I teach three courses on spiritual direction and in the past also taught a course on prayer and scripture. Occasionally I've served as a continuing education instructor for Together in the Mystery. In March 2023, I began teaching a course in the Advanced Certificate in Supervision, offered through Fordham University's Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education.
- 38 years of experience in leadership roles (pastor, professor, non-profit administrator, program administrator).
- Anabaptist-Mennonite, but with most of my theological education from three different seminaries in the Reformed tradition (United Church of Christ and Presbyterian).
- Significantly influenced by various Catholic spiritualities (Carmelite, Jesuit, and Benedictine—I am, in fact, a Camaldolese Benedictine oblate of the Monastery of the Risen Christ in San Luis Obispo, California).
- Some authors who’ve influenced me: Benedict of Nursia, Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Keating, Jürgen Moltmann, Barbara Brown Taylor, Kathleen Norris, and Elizabeth Liebert.
- 44 years of living in rural and small town areas of northern Indiana, currently on the edge of a small city of 35,000 people, with a mix of Anglo, Latino, and African-American neighbors.
- 4 years of living in Miami, 6 years in Chicago, and 10 years in Columbus, Ohio.
- In our current home, living with mammal neighbors such as wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, red foxes, eastern cottontail rabbits, eastern chipmunks, squirrels galore (fox, grey, red, and black), and groundhogs. Avian neighbors of note include red-tailed hawks, sandhill cranes, great blue herons, Canada goose, owls of sundry species, and scores of others. Honorable mentions go out to spring peepers and grey tree frogs.
- Currently I’m trying to live less at the center and more on the margins, with a spirituality that is contemplative, grounded, artistic, compassionate, and respectful of the work that is God’s to accomplish, not mine.
