What is your passion in ministry?

My dream is for people to let God grab hold of them and lead them into life's adventures with Him. It's funny how different this looks from person to person. It's exciting when someone decides to head to the developing world as a missionary instead of pursuing a career that will make them lots of $$$. It's also huge when someone overcomes addiction or abuse from their past, inviting God's healing into every part of their life But there's also a huge excitement in my soul when someone decides not to be a workaholic, but instead trusts God to take care of the world around them while they take a day off (the spiritual world would be Sabbath).

What qualities do you bring to your ministry?

I'm fun loving, longing for God, thinking, geekishly athletic (I made that word up), and honest. I'm a fairly regular person, but I deeply believe that God uses all the regular people of the world to do amazing things.

Tell us about your family.

I've been married to my awesome wife and best friend Lisette for more than 10 years. We have so much fun serving God together (she's the youth pastor here at BVCC) and raising our kids.

Abbi is our daughter and Mattias is our son. You can see them running around the foyer Sunday mornings asking if it's time to go home yet, then complaining that they have to leave their friends when it is time to go!

How did you get involved with BVCC?

My wife Lisette grew up here at Bow Valley and I grew up at one of our sister churches, Oak Park Church of Christ.

We have job shared various pastoral positions since we were married. When we returned to Calgary she was offered the Youth Pastor position here, and I stayed home with the kids for 2 years until they were both in school. The Pastor of Young Adult position became available here and I jumped at the chance to get back into a pastoral role.

What quote inspires you?

“If swimming is good for your figure, how do you explain whales.”

~anonymous

“So rather than just taking on jobs you can put your heart into, you should find a way to put your heart into everything you do.”

~from a student responding to Hillman Curtis in his book "Creating Short Films for the Web"

“'Never give up on church.'

I leaned in close to his face as my grandfather whispered those words hours before he passed away. Those were the last five words he spoke to me. At the time, I had no idea the weight of those words would someday carry. This book is dedicated to you, Grandpa Emmett. And I promise I won't.”

~Anne Jackson from the dedication of her book "Mad Church Disease"