Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

I also love Rom.5:6-11. Over the past 30 years of preaching full time, preaching through Colossians was a great journey, that Jesus is sufficient for everything and the "Christ in me" theme. That went hand in hand with the "sabbath" principle of Heb.4.

Preaching for 2-1/2 years through Luke was transformational for our church. It's just difficult to limit this answer to any one passage.

2.  Vital Statistics:  Month, Day, (Year Optional) & Place you were born

March 19, 1953 (on my  favorite uncle's 15th birthday ... he became my best friend). Sheffield, Alabama. Colbert County Hospital.

3. Names and birthdays of spouse & children

Fate? I had been in a  horrible ministry situation in Florida for the previous 7 years. The last place I wanted to raise my children was Los Angeles County, California. I talked with one of the elders here on the night Bill Clinton was first elected (a bleak night in my life on many levels) and told him I'd heard the Long Beach church was looking for a preacher.

He told me they had already narrowed the search down from about 35 candidates to two men, but send him my resume overnight delivery. Through a process of prayer and much apprehension (on my part), we were asked to come to Long Beach in April of 1993. It's been an incredible blessing!

Sheffield, AL as a babe. Moved to Meridian, MS for a couple of years, then to central Florida (Maitland and then Orlando) from about the age of 5 until sixth grade. Montgomery, AL from 7th through 9th grade. Tenth grade through marrying Janice in 1975, I lived in Sheffield, AL.

After we married, we lived in Florence, AL (just across the Tennessee River from Sheffield) until moving to Rockledge, Florida in 1885. In 1993, we moved to Long Beach, CA and have been here since. Looks as if we may live out our lives here in Southern California.

I've worked construction as a "gopher" and as a carpenter. Taught psychology courses for Alabama Christian College for two years. Counseling and hypnotherapy for six years while preaching part time for a small church in rural Lauderdale County, Alabama. Full time preaching since 1985.

Eight years in Rockledge, FL and the past 13 years in Long Beach. I was a high school basketball official for 18 years in Alabama and Florida. For six years, I served the Rockledge Police as departmental chaplain, named officer of the quarter twice for my work with detectives in homicide. Wrote SOP (standard operating procedure) for death notifications from the department and co-wrote SOP for post-traumatic event debriefing for all officers. Most recently,

I passed my state licensing exam to be a funeral director in California, which I've done part-time for the past three years. Became licensed in May of 2006.

If I revealed that, they would no longer be hidden, now would they? I play guitar, banjo, percussion, and keyboards. Sing vocals in our church praise band and on our praise and worship team (as a sub).

For many years, I was professionally certified as a hypno-therapist. A few years ago I went through Pepperdine University School of Law's conflict resolution / mediation training.

Luke. When I was a senior in college, my walk with the Lord was very weak at best. My fiancee was very strong in her faith and we were planning to be married shortly after I graduated. I knew I needed to get serious  in my walk with the Lord or walk away from it altogether.

I went and talked with Dr. Batsel Barrett Baxter about my conflict and after about an hour in his office, he told me to read Luke as if I'd never read it before and allow Jesus to become real to me. I didn't take his advice for several months, but when I finally did, it was a transformational moment in my life.

A couple of decades later, when I preached through Luke at Long Beach, I saw the spirits of people change almost before my eyes ... including my own spirit.