I am currently the Senior Pastor of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Santa Monica, California.  Prior to coming to Mt. Olive in April of 2014, my wife, Kris, and I lived in New York City where I served as Senior Vice President of Philanthropy and Faith Community Relations for Odyssey Networks with responsibility for fund-raising and relationships among US faith groups. While at Odyssey I led efforts to open membership to faith groups beyond Christianity, Judaism and Islam and greatly expanded fund-raising. For my efforts in producing CBS television’s 2012 Christmas Eve special I was named “2012 Religion Communicator of the Year.”

Prior to my time at Odyssey, I served as Senior Pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, the 9th largest congregation in the ELCA. Other positions I have held include:  Director for Communication for the ELCA; Assistant to the Bishop of the ELCA’s Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod; and pastor of Holy Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church in Catasauqua, Pennnsylvania.

I am a graduate of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio and Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania – I currently serve on Muhlenberg’s Board of Directors. I have taught in South Africa and Madagascar and made multiple trips to Jerusalem and the West Bank. But, I may be best known for my work, while at the ELCA in Chicago, on the stop-motion animation children’s program, Davey and Goliath.