I’m a young, training-to-be-a-pastor, student at Geneva College, majoring in Christian Ministries and Sociology. I’m part of the Rebelution ministry and looking to transform society and our culture in any and every way that I can for the glory of God, for His Kingdom’s coming, and through the power of His Son. But who I am and what I do is nothing apart from Who my Boss is - Jesus Christ, Who died on the cross for the sins of the world and the redemption of all things. “By the grace of God, I am what I am.”

I was raised by Christian parents in Pittsburgh, PA. My faith was encouraged and fed through the love and care of my mother and grandmother (yes, reminiscent of a certain Biblical young, training-to-be-a-pastor individual). The church I was dedicated in was fundamentally concerned with Christian ethics during my time there and, thus, much of my doctrinal instruction was self-studied. God saved me in August 1997, at eight years of age and He began to work even more on teaching me His Word. Yet, I made no amazing advances during that time except to solidify my commitment to the charismatic beliefs - that the Holy Spirit is active and speaks to and through the believers today in all His manifestations and gifts.

When I turned sixteen, God started moving in my convictions and challenging and shaping my fundamental commitments. While I continued as a charismatic and have found great joy in God’s grace in those manifestations, He was teaching me about the Jewishness of my faith. While I had always had a passion for the Jewish people, I had always thought that they had erred grievously in everything about the Bible. What God began to show me was that they hadn’t misunderstood the Scriptures, but had, rather, missed their Messiah because God desired the Gentiles to hear of the Gospel (Romans 9-11).

Investing in Jewish theology and contacts, I became covenantal, traditional, and insanely committed to the necessity of Old Testament lenses to understand New Testament concepts.  It was through this means and through the Spirit’s conviction that I came to be convinced of the essential reformation teachings of the doctrines of grace. Since coming to these, God has graciously continued to teach and challenge me and, now, under the guidance of Sovereign Grace Ministries, I continue to learn and grow and pray and read, eager to share all good things with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

God has given me a passion for discipleship - to see believers embrace a confessional practice of the Gospel, that through it, glorify God and build up the Church, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:13-16 ESV)

Miscellaneous Information

Age: 19
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Pastors: Mike Pierson and Jeremy Hetrick (Providence Church of PIttsburgh), Jeff Marshall (New Day Assembly)
Influential Authors: J.R.R. Tolkien, John Piper, Chaim Potok, C.J. Mahaney, C.S. Lewis, Rabbinic writers