Our Family & My Journey
If you asked me years ago where I thought life would take me, I’m not sure I would have given
you the answer I have today. But looking back, I can see God’s fingerprints all over the journey.
Tracey and I were married on August 22, 1992, and somehow, after all these years, I still think I
got the better end of that deal! Together, we have been blessed with three beautiful children:
Jackie is 33, Anthony is 22, and Nicholas is 19 and we now also have a bonus son (in-law)
Anthony.
And then there’s Lucas.
Lucas is our first grandchild, and at two years old, he has quickly become my main buddy. Being
a grandfather has given me a whole new perspective on life. There’s something pretty special
about watching the next generation grow up and even more special when you get to spoil them
a little and then send them home!
For more than 20 years, Tracey and I have served in ministry together, both as volunteers and
as employees. Ministry has never simply been a job for us. It has been something we have
experienced together as a family. There have been incredible seasons, difficult seasons,
unexpected turns, and plenty of moments when we simply had to trust God and keep moving
forward.
My ministry journey actually began in worship.
I started as a Worship Arts Manager and eventually became a Worship Pastor. Music and
worship have always been a huge part of who I am, and I loved serving the church in that
capacity. But somewhere along the way, God began stirring something different in me. He
began calling me away from simply leading worship and more toward preaching, teaching, and
pastoring.
There was just one problem.
I wasn't formally trained for it.
So, for the next five years, I went back to school taking multiple college-level courses and
completing online training to prepare myself for what I believed God was calling me to do. It
wasn't a quick process, and it certainly wasn't glamorous. But I knew that if God was opening a
door, I wanted to be prepared to walk through it.
Then came Proving Ground Church.
Tracey and I opened PGC, along with 6 core team families, on September 6, 2020 dead in the
middle of a global pandemic.
If you looked at the circumstances on paper, you probably wouldn't have started a church then.
Churches were closing their doors. People weren't gathering. The future was uncertain. And
honestly, there were plenty of reasons to think, "Maybe this isn't the right time."
But God had other plans.
What happened next wasn't because we had some brilliant strategy or because we figured out
the perfect way to do church. It happened because we simply tried to follow God's lead. God
opened doors, provided people, and continued to grow His church. We have been growing,
serving, and making disciples ever since.
And I believe there is a reason PGC connected with people so quickly.
Before we ever started Proving Ground Church, my years in ministry had given me a pretty clear
picture of what God was asking me to lean into. He wasn't asking me to become somebody
else. He was asking me to become more of who He designed me to be.

That has shaped the way I pastor.
I've always wanted church to be a place where you don't have to know all the Christian
vocabulary, understand all the theology, or have your life completely together before you walk
through the doors.
I wanted PGC to be a church for a person who is just trying to figure out this whole faith thing.
For the lifelong Christian, but also for the person who isn't sure what they believe yet.
For the family that's doing great, and for the family that's barely holding it together.
For people who have been in church their whole lives and people who are walking through the
doors for the very first time.
We are very down-to-earth. We are relational. We are practical. And we try not to take
ourselves too seriously because life is complicated enough without making church
unnecessarily complicated too.
But being relatable doesn't mean watering down God's Word.
We don't hide from the difficult parts of Scripture, and we don't shy away from God's truth
simply because a particular teaching may be uncomfortable or unpopular in today's culture. We
believe God's Word is God's Word.
But we also recognize that people are living in a complicated world.
People are struggling with real things. Families are hurting. Marriages are messy. People are
dealing with questions, doubts, disappointments, addictions, anxiety, grief, loneliness, and a
thousand other things that don't always fit neatly into a Sunday morning.
That's why our mission at Proving Ground Church is:
“Loving people where they’re at because Christ loves us where we are.”
That isn't just a slogan to us. It's the heart behind how we want to do ministry.
Because before Jesus ever asks us to change, He meets us where we are.
And that's what I want PGC to continue to be. A place where people can come as they are,
encounter Jesus, grow in their faith, discover their purpose, and become the people God
created them to be.
Everything we do at Proving Ground Church is built around three simple values:
Refreshing | Relational | Relevant
We want church to be Refreshing—a place where people can take a breath, find hope, and be
reminded that they don't have to navigate life alone.
We want church to be Relational—because faith was never meant to be lived in isolation. We
believe people need people.
And we want church to be Relevant—not because God's Word needs to change, but because
the way we communicate and live out that unchanging truth should speak into the world we
actually live in.
When I look back at the journey from a young husband and father, to serving in worship, to
sensing God's call toward preaching and pastoring, to spending five years preparing, to
launching a church in the middle of a pandemic, I can honestly say I wouldn't have written the
story this way.
But I'm glad God did.
Because this has never really been about what Tracey and I could build.
It's about what God can do when ordinary people that are willing to say yes.
And we're still saying yes.