Thanks for checking me out

I am the pastor of the South Strand Community Church.  Starting a new church has been a dream and passion of mine for several years.  God saved me in 1987 when I was 24.  Soon afterwards, I sensed God calling me into vocational Christian ministry and attended Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University), where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1993.  During my time in college, I also served as youth pastor at Three Rivers Baptist Church in Irmo, SC.  It was during this time that God began building in my heart of a vision for starting a new church somewhere.  

Soon after graduation God called me to Surfside Beach as the Minister of Youth and Education at First Baptist Church.  I served there for two years.  It was here, at the beach, where God really gave me a conviction about the need for new churches, anywhere in general, but the South Strand area of Myrtle Beach specifically.

Through many providential circumstances, I also believed that God was leading me to continue my education, so I moved my family to Wake Forest, NC to attend Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1995.  I received my Master of Divinity in May 1999.  During my time at seminary, God had continued to build in me the desire to plant a church somewhere.  I wrestled about the place, but it always seemed that he was pointing me back to the beach.  Upon graduation, while nearly all of my seminary friends were seeking pastorates in established churches, God was calling me to the South Strand.

In January 2000, we moved back to Surfside Beach to begin this new work, leading a Bible study in our home.  We met for over a year before God opened a way for us to move into our current location in Lorraine Plaza in Surfside Beach.

Along with preaching and teaching, I enjoy the role of leading worship and music in our services.  I am a serious musician who loves many kinds of music.  It has been fun to develop the music at South Strand.  I have learned to use technology to program a good little MIDI band.  We have grown a nice repertoire of well written and doctrinally sound songs--everything from a few good CCM songs to some old hymns.  I also have picked a good number of songs from the people at Sovereign Grace Ministries.  There are many beautiful new hymns out there that we love to sing.

I learned of the Sovereign Grace people at conference I went to in Louisville, Kentucky in 2006 and 2008 called Together for the Gospel. Some of my favorite preachers (John MacArthur, John Piper, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, etc.) were there and the music was awesome. If you know anything about these men, then you know my influences in ministry, theology and philosophy.  I am a member of the Shepherd's Fellowship, a ministry of John MacArthur's church, Grace Community Church.  While I have not purposely patterned South Strand exactly after the churches of my favorites, I have intently designed that we would carry the same principle philosophy of ministry, that of expositional preaching and sound theology.

A few of my favorite web sites:

And some good blogs that I read regularly: