ABOUT ME

I graduated from the University of Georgia with a BBA in Finance, while also representing the university on the baseball diamond. That led to a four-year baseball career with the Philadelphia Phillies. After baseball, it was one year in mortgage, two and a half years with IBM, and back to the mortgage business for good, where I am currently serving as the President and Founder of Valor Home Loans (shameless plug if you need a mortgage).

For the first 25 years of my life, I grew up completely indifferent to faith. I was raised in a Chrisitan home-ish, but at age 9, something happened with my parents and the church we attended, and after that, we no longer attended on a regular basis. Life was 24/7, 365 days a year sports, and church became something we only did on Christmas and Easter.

During my middle school, high school, college, and minor league baseball years, religion and faith weren’t even a thought, and my lifestyle echoed that. I wasn’t against it; I was just indifferent to it. Coincidentally, that changed soon after I decided to retire from baseball.

A friend of mine invited me to a large “church thing” in Atlanta called 7:22 (never underestimate the power of a simple invitation). She said there would be thousands of people and half of them would be cute girls. I was in. I’ll never forget the first night. The band was rocking, people were smiling and having fun, and my friend was right; there were a lot of cute girls, one of which I would end up marrying months later. This was NOT the church experience I remembered from my youth. Louie Giglio was the leader, and he made some “truth” claims about Jesus using “evidence”. I had never heard this before, so it launched me into a 6-month journey researching world religions and apologetics (the use of evidence to defend Christianity). I was convinced there was no chance Louie was right, but after 6 months of researching, I couldn’t argue it anymore, and my life would change forever.

Shortly after, Mia and I got married, and we started serving in the high school ministry at North Point Community Church, led by Andy Stanley. We had our son, Chase, and moved to Colorado Springs when he was 1. We attended and helped grow Red Rock Church (a North Point Partner Church, now called Peak City Church), and I eventually became an elder. Ever since we lived in Colorado, I have led high school and adult ministries, but my ultimate passion is high school students and apologetics.

The reason for FUEL is because I can relate to students on both sides of the cross…those who believe and those who don’t. I didn’t grow up with it, so I get it. FUEL is a place ALL students can come, regardless of their beliefs, have fun with friends, get fed, meet some cool people, ask questions, and hopefully learn something. Or at least be intrigued by something they hear. There are no bad or wrong questions, and I will always make myself available. Most of the questions students likely have, I had at one time.

If you are a student reading this, just come and see. Try it once. If you hate it, don’t come back; it’s that easy. If you are a parent reading this and have questions, feel free to reach out any time, but encourage your student to come.

God wants For U an Epic Life! Come learn why that might be true!