I grew up in a wonderful, loving Christian home, going to church every week and immersed in the life of the Christian sub-culture.  When I was fourteen years old I heard the gospel at Junior High church camp in a way I could understand it and responded to the invitation to trust Christ for my salvation.  From then on, I was the quintessential church kid. I was involved in a great youth group attending "Fellowship" on Sunday nights and Bible Study/Breakfast on Thursday mornings  before school. I sang in the youth choir’s “rock musical Natural High,” and went on all the camping trips and social events.

I started my involvement with Young Life and Campaigners as a sophomore in high school and went on every weekend camp and to Frontier Ranch after my junior year. I brought my friends to Young Life and I experienced first hand the thrill of leading some of them to Christ.  After I graduated from college I again got involved in my church helping lead the youth group, but my real passion was for non-Christian kids so in 1978 I became a volunteer with Young Life in Baltimore.

My own college experience and the struggles I witnessed with my other Young Life friends caused me to re-think the traditional ministry model I had grown up with. I was convinced that the Biblical need for discipleship should accompany conversion. I had seen that the emphasis on a conversion moment lacked the emphasis on building disciples into spiritual maturity. One of my mentors in Young Life said to me that he had noticed that the people who grew the most in Young Life were the volunteer leaders. That struck a chord with me and made intuitive sense. The people who were risking themselves in the ministry were the ones experiencing the reality of God the most in their lives and they were the ones growing the most.

While that made sense, it also didn’t seem right. The kids we were ministering too should be the ones growing the most. My thesis was that if we enabled Christian kids to be the leaders in the ministry then they would grow the most and become the disciples the Bible talked about. The key to that strategy was to first get rid of all the gimmicks – the banana splits - and focus instead on relationships. I followed the model of Jesus and build each ministry around three key leader/disciples who relationally engaged others.  

I took this approach to my first volunteer club in Baltimore, MD. (2 years) as Area Director in Bethlehem, PA, (5 ½ years), St. Louis, MO (8 ½ years), and as Provincial Director in Ontario Canada (8 years).  In every case the results were the same.  Christian kids not only grew spiritually and continued their walk with Christ through college and into adulthood, but the ministry to their peers also grew into some of the largest works in Young Life.

During the time in St. Louis I also completed my Masters of Divinity at Covenant Theological Seminary, and wrote the book “No Banana Splits” which has been used extensively throughout North America. In 1997 I developed the Vision for Your Life process ( www.visionforyourlife.com) , helping individuals and corporate teams identify and grow in Emotional Intelligence. I visit France every year and in 2006, along with my friend Bill Vandermarel,  started B&B's French Wine Club (www.bandbsfrenchwineclub.com ). I have been married to Debbie for 24 years and we have two sons.