Personal Data
Year of Birth: 1955
Birthplace: Jersey City, New Jersey
Citizenship: United States
Health: Excellent. Marathon runner until triple bypass at age 43. Very disciplined with current exercise/eating programs.
Family
Judy and I have been married for 38 years. We have three children and seven grandchildren.
Church Membership
Appleton Alliance Church, Appleton, Wisconsin
Education
University of Massachusetts (Boston, MA)—BS in Business Marketing (1977)
Alliance Theological Seminary (Nyack, NY)—M.Div. in Missions (1985)
Denver Seminary (Denver, CO)—Doctorate of Executive Leadership (2013)
Service Record
1997–present Senior Pastor, Appleton Alliance Church, Appleton, WI
1992–1996 Executive Pastor, Fellowship Alliance Chapel, Medford, NJ
1985–1992 Senior Pastor, Turnersville Alliance Church, Turnersville, NJ
1983–1985 Assistant Pastor, Port Chester Alliance Church, Port Chester, NY
1977–1982 Regional Manager, American International Group (AIG)
Other Service
Adjunct Professor (MBA Program), Concordia University (2016–present)
DEXCOM and LO&CC, Metropolitan District
LO&CC, Western Great Lakes District
Founder/President of 3 LLCs: Church Vision Consulting, ExecCare, and Inspire Leadership Training
Founder/Co-chair: Common Ground of the Fox Cities
Vice Chair of Board for Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity
Vistage CEO Group member
NFL Chaplain (1995–2015)
Conversion Experience and Continuing Walk with God
I came to Christ out of a Roman Catholic background at 24 years old. At that time, I was extremely religious and zealous for the Roman Catholic faith. My brother, Pete, shared the gospel with me and after three weeks of struggling, I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. The Lord immediately led me to Long Hill Chapel in New Jersey, where I was discipled under the ministry of Dr. Paul Bubna. Having sensed a strong call to the pastorate, I left a business career in New York and enrolled at Alliance Theological Seminary. There, I met my wife, Judy, and we both graduated from the Missions Program.
After graduation, I accepted a call to be Senior Pastor at Faith Community Church, a small congregation in Turnersville, New Jersey. We enjoyed our years at FCC and some of our best friends are still there. We then sensed God’s leading to move to Medford, NJ, to pastor with our good friends, Marty and Laurie Berglund. I served as Executive Pastor for four wonderful years, and we saw God significantly expand the ministry there. In 1997, I accepted the call to be Senior Pastor of Appleton Alliance Church in Appleton, Wisconsin, a church of 500 members, at that time. God eventually gave me and the governing board a clear vision to become a regional church of 5–7,000 with a passion for making global impact. It necessitated building a $35 million campus. We have watched the Lord do amazing things over the last 23 years in bringing that vision to reality. We are currently in the middle of a succession plan, handing the leadership baton over to younger leaders.
My walk with God has never been deeper. My disciplines are to get up at 5 a.m. every morning, to spend time in prayer, exercise, then spend at least one hour in God’s Word. I also read a hymn and a leadership devotional. Morning appointments begin at 8 a.m. solely to protect that quiet time. God has recently given me a new life verse from Psalm 91:1:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
My goal in life now is to walk with the Master in that “secret place” throughout my day.
Expected Role as President
1) To walk closely with my God, moment by moment, everyday . . . enjoying Him, communing with Him and submitting to His promptings. This will always be priority #1.
2) To honor and protect the C&MA’s doctrine, ministries, and historical call.
3) To model the values of the C&MA and be the primary communicator, representative, and “keeper” of the God-sized vision He will provide.
4) To attract, keep, and develop an “A” team of healthy ministry leaders at ALL levels to accomplish the vision.
5) To call National Office staff, Board of Directors, Alliance workers, leaders, churches and the entire Alliance constituency to a passionate, sacrificial commitment to our values and vision.
6) To unify ALL the different ministry leaders, departments, organizations, donors, churches, etc. in a strategic, collaborative effort, so we move in a single direction, eliminating silos.
7) To own the responsibility of making sure The Alliance has a successful funding plan for vision accomplishment now and into the future.
8) To build an empowering culture of younger leaders.
Vision for the Future of the C&MA
I certainly would like to see The Alliance put a much different target on the wall. In my view, we have spent the last several years concentrating on various internal organizational changes as well as entertaining controversial theological change. I have also watched our denomination struggle for many years in funding our work as we remain stagnant and flat in our growth. We essentially have the same number of missionaries and churches that we had 15 years ago. One could even argue we have taken steps backwards because increasingly, we are requiring many of our international workers to raise their own support.
I believe The Alliance needs to get back to OUR MISSION as the target and appoint a visionary leader to steward that mission. While some organizational or theological issues may need to be addressed along the way, they should not be the main thing. A clear and compelling God-sized Ministry Vision is desperately needed with laser focus on Church Health, Church Planting, and Global Expansion of the Gospel, especially among unreached people groups and countries. Movements have a tendency to shift their focus over time to institutional priorities. We MUST get back to the critical “Mission” that God has carved out for the C&MA. I am willing to serve as its Visionary Leader and believe it is one of my God-given gifts to bring us back to those priorities.
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