I grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina and was raised in a Christian home where I surrendered my life to Christ at an early age. In my 20s I worked as a land surveyor and eventually earned my professional license. I also participated in several missions trips with my local church and felt the call to serve the Lord in ministry. Sometime later I moved overseas and worked for a year with an IMB team, and then returned to study and train at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. While I was there, I met my lovely bride, Stacey. I was also introduced to the field of biblical counseling and saw the need to equip church leaders, both at home and abroad, with the rich resources that the Scripture provides for counseling one another in truth and love.

While there at Southwestern, I earned a Master of Divinity with concentration in Pastoral Counseling and then went on to complete the PhD in Biblical Counseling with a minor in Systematic Theology in 2021. Since then, I have taught biblical counseling at three different seminaries. Also, I am a certified counselor with ACBC, and I have enjoyed counseling as a lay counselor in my local church for several years.