Background: I was born in 1971 with a birth defect. I had four surgeries in the first three and a half years of my life. I am not supposed to be here. I thank God for the prayers of a godly mother.
I spent my childhood on a dairy farm in south-central Kentucky about one and a half hours north of Nashville, Tennessee. My father was a bi-vocational SBC pastor and farmer, and from an early age, I desired to be a pastor. In 1989, I graduated from Barren County High School and began attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. In the spring of my freshman year of college, I began dating Tosha. During our dating years, in March 1992, a drunk driver killed my godly mom. This greatly shaped my view of what it means to live in a real relationship with God and others.
I won the 1993 Liberty University preaching award and got to personally meet with Dr. Jerry Falwell. Additionally, I got to speak to 5k plus people in the weekly convocation service.
In 1993, I married Tosha, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pastoral studies, and began studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. While pursuing my seminary education, I worked as a youth pastor at South Park Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, Texas. I became the interim senior pastor of that church during my final year in Dallas. I graduated cum laude from DTS with a master’s of theology (Th.M.) degree in pastoral studies in 1996.
After completing seminary, Tosha and I became qualified as church planter apprentices with the Southern Baptist Convention. We moved to Colorado Springs to start Vanguard Church of Colorado Springs. Vanguard quickly raised local media attention as well as national attention in media outlets such as Time, The 700 Club, Christianity Today, The New York Times, and ABC World News Tonight.
I have now served as the Senior Pastor of Vanguard for 24 years and have transitioned from being a church planting/founding pastor to being a senior pastor.
We have 2k plus in attendance for Easter/Christmas. We have an ongoing weekly attendance between 800-1300 (depending on ski season). We are the largest Southern Baptist Church in Colorado. We expanded Vanguard to three campuses in 2017. The SBC declared Vanguard to be one of the top 30 SBC churches in its size range for 2014 regarding our conversion rate. We have seen over 3300 people follow Christ in believer’s baptism in its 20 years of existence. We have partnered to plant 44 churches.
Along the way, I have spoken for the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. I am the co-author (with Richie Fike) of the devotional book The Morning Has Come (sold about 1000 copies) the co-author (with Tosha Williams) of Real Marriage. We have sold between 2500-3000 copies of Real Marriage. It was featured in Barnes and Noble. I have also written for Leadership Journal. In 2017, Friend of Sinners: Taking Risks To Reach The Lost was published with a traditional publishing house named CrossLink out of Castle Rock, CO. It released in June 2017.
I speak periodically for a number of churches from California to New York and across the Midwest. I spoke six times in 2015 at Capo Beach (2k in weekend attendees) in Southern California near Saddleback. We have a network of churches and para-church organizations that would be interested in the publication of this book and would invite me to share on the book. I have developed a lot of friendships with pastors over the years and would look to get this book into Bible colleges and Seminaries as a textbook for pastoral classes.
In addition to being the husband of Tosha, and the Senior Pastor of Vanguard Church, I am the proud father of five children: 1) Anastasha 24, Christianna 22, Joshua 19, Annalarie 17, and Journey Grace 14. My family and I run a small beef farm in Colorado Springs and love it. Having grown up in Kentucky, I love Kentucky Wildcats Basketball.
My deepest passions are to read God’s Word, hear His voice, and train leaders for Christ. At present, I have read the Bible 87 times. I want to take my readings and teach others how they too can become who God created them to be and be challenged to have “good success” in their lives as pastors.
I have a book coming out with Vide Press, the publishing arm of The Christian Post. In the United States alone, we have roughly 300,000 churches with multiple pastors at many of these churches. There is a great need to provide these 300-400k pastors the means of developing themselves while still growing God’s people. I believe The Good Pastor Book can fill a void that has been present in pastors’ lives in the United States and abroad for some time.
Previous Writing: My wife (Tosha) and I self-published real marriage: where fantasy meets reality with Tate Publishing in 2008. It sold roughly 3000 copies. It is out of print and we are looking to do a second printing of it. We led a group of 100 through this book in the Spring of 2017.
I contracted and published, Friend of Sinners: Taking Risks To Reach The Lost with CrossLink Publishing House. It tells the 20-year story of Vanguard Church and how we took risks to reach the lost like Jesus. It released in June 2017. Jim Daly, President of Focus On The Family wrote the Foreword and endorsed the cover along with Jimmy Mellado, President of Compassion International, and Larry Osborne, Senior Pastor, Northcoast Church in California. One of the leaders who read this book is:
Jerry B. Jenkins, who wrote “The Left Behind” series. He wrote a review of Friend of Sinners and said this about it:
“I read Friend of Sinners…a chapter at a time during my quiet time one month. Having a son Chad at Vanguard for the part of the time you wrote about–and having visited a few times–gave me a unique angle on your story. I loved your honesty and transparency, and I especially resonated with your view of evangelism. I found your story refreshing and applaud all you’re doing there. Thanks for sending it to me.”
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