About Me

My religious and career experiences look more like a smorgasbord or collage than a straight line. This has either given me a particular kind of insight into theology and religion or simply made me more confused. I have had a wide range of Christian experiences.

I grew up in Denver, Colorado in a family of four boys.  My father was Jewish and my mother Congregational, but for the most part, we were not involved with religious institutions. I converted to Christianity in a small Pentecostal church as a teenager, and upon college graduation, I embarked on a vocation as a campus minister with the Assemblies of God. After completing my studies at Denver Seminary, my wife and I attended a church in downtown Denver that had a particular mission to the homeless. My career as a minister ended then, and I resumed my fall back work in the bicycle business. 

In 1993, we left Denver and joined an inner-city intentional Christian community in Los Angeles, which had theological roots in the Anabaptist and Christian Church traditions. I assumed several responsibilities while in community and taught English at an alternative high school in Harbor City. 

Upon returning to Denver in 2001, my family and I embraced and was received into the Russian Catholic Church tradition. While teaching developmental English at a community college, I resumed my theological studies through the University of South Africa and received a master of Theology in Old Testament . By 2010, I had received my doctoral degree in Old Testament. 

I pursue my academic and writing interests as an “independent scholar,”  “freelance writer,” or my term of choice a "free-range theologist. In any case, I cannot say I have a career in any of those. This, I suppose, makes me more an arm-chair theologian or an amateur writer. It could also mean that I am not savvy enough to impress university, publishing, or ecclesial institutions. 

Both Amos the prophet of Israel and Ephrem an unassuming ascetic, deacon, and catechetical teacher of the 4th century acquired little notoriety with the institutions of their day. They are best known for a lifetime of quite faithfulness that empowered them to courageously act in a time of crisis.

Currently, I live in Littleton, Colorado and make my living as a bicycle mechanic. Since 2002, I have been a part of the SS Cyril and Methodius Russian Greek Catholic community, which meets at the St. John Francis Regis chapel on the Regis University campus.