Tom
My heart's desire is to help people everywhere understand the love of Jesus Christ, but it took me a while to come to that. My background should have led me to become a Christian early in life--but it didn't. In spite of growing up in a solid, loving, caring Christian family, it took me a long time to understand what Jesus Christ was all about.
I was motivated early on to be a Christian, largely because I was in a church-going family, and also because frankly I was frightened by the Bible's stories of what happened to those who weren't saved. So I tried to be a Christian, which I took to mean doing Christian things, telling my friends about Jesus, and staying away from the obvious sins. What I got for my efforts was frustration. Enough frustration, in fact, that when I reached the age of thinking things through for myself, I concluded Christianity just wasn't working and wasn't worth trying any more. I had quite given up on it by the time I got to college.
That's why I was so intrigued when a couple of my neighbors in the dormitory seemed to be living as Christians and enjoying it. I thought I'd proved it couldn't be done! They showed why Christianity could be trusted as historically reliable (much of this came from the writings of Josh McDowell.) I learned I could trust the message of Christ as true, and not just because my family had steered me that direction but because there were trustworthy reasons to believe it. My friends also shared a simple message with me called the Four Spiritual Laws. I finally understood it was not a matter of "trying" to be a Christian, but of trusting Christ to come into my life and make me the kind of person He wanted me to be.
That was the start. My gratitude for what Christ has done has led me to devote my life to sharing his love and truth wherever I can. I spent about 10 years as a musician with the Music Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, first playing trombone, then helping to train young music ministers, learning to run sound, and leading an exciting 50's style band called The Convertibles. When I married Sara, I left the road and together we led the Music Ministry Training Center for two years before moving in the direction of Campus Crusade's national leadership.
I spent several years helping to build individuals and teams as a Human Resource director for Campus Crusade's U.S. ministries, earning a Master's degree in Organizational Psychology and developing some unique team and leadership assessment tools along the way. Then we decided it was time to move back closer to where the "action" is, in the field ministries.
We moved to Virginia, to the headquarters of the Military Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. I spent two years leading new initiatives in online (web-based) ministry, at www.milmin.com, until God called us back to the leadership of CCC's U.S. Ministries.
Today I'm working with most of Campus Crusade's U.S.-based ministries and some international ones as well, doing strategic planning and effectiveness monitoring. Or, to put it more simply, I help our ministries discover (1) what they should be doing, and (2)whether they're actually doing it effectively.
I've also been doing some considerable writing--a blog, and several published articles, mostly on Biblical topics and on apologetics (reasons for belief in Jesus Christ).
That's more or less the story of what I've done. Who I am is harder to capture in words--a man who really loves and enjoys his wife and kids, who is passionate about building people and teams for leadership, who has his share of failings, and who is still learning it's not about what I do for Christ, but about trusting in what Christ has done for me.