I spent my entire life in church. Literally. From the time that I was a fetus and my dad was preaching. Until 2014, I never worked a full-time job outside of the church. From 2014-2018, I got a full view of life outside the church and inside small Christian college academia. Both have their advantages, but neither is all that pretty.

In late 2017, I had the “brilliant” idea to leave the academy and return full-time to the church as a pastor of a small congregation in my hometown. Several people told me I couldn’t/shouldn’t do this. As usual my response to this was “Hey y’all, watch this.” And this ended as most “Hold my beer” endeavors do.

The late Mike Yaconnelli, a former pastor, satirist, and co-founder of Youth Specialties, often claims the title of World’s Worst Pastor. But I think I have him beat. I have made the career moves from professor to pastor to my present status as a pizza cook.

Talk about going out in a blaze of glory…

So there I was, with 20+ years of experience and a $200k education, working in a pizza kitchen. And it was great–learned more in that kitchen than I ever did holed up in a church office.

Now, I am back to campus, serving as a professor and campus chaplain at a small Christian university. I’m writing some blogs and books and figuring out what’s next. If you’re interested in finding out where this adventure takes us, then keep reading!

Make no mistake, views expressed here are mine and mine alone.