Tell us a little about yourself:
I grew up in Dinwiddie, Virginia, a rural community about an hour south of Richmond. Growing up, we always joked that there was not much in Dinwiddie besides cows and tobacco fields. It’s a fairly accurate description! However, it’s home and it’s where I was nurtured in the faith at Oak Grove United Methodist Church, a congregation that pre-dates the US Civil War and boasts of less than fifty active members.
I attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where I earned a BA in Spanish Language and Literatures and minored in mathematics. After college, I spent two years working for several United Methodist ministries along the US-Mexico border as an interpreter, document translator, and occasional guide/host for volunteer teams in Mexico. Afterwards I spent a year working as a long-term substitute teacher (Spanish and Algebra) at my own high school before entering Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education (since renamed Union Presbyterian Seminary) in Richmond, Virginia. At Union I earned an MDiv and a ThM in biblical studies. While in seminary, I served as a licensed pastor at a United Methodist church on the south side of Richmond, where I met my wife. At that time, I was also blessed with the opportunity to teach as an adjunct in the religious studies department at Virginia Commonwealth University, where I taught Hebrew and Old Testament courses. Discerning a call to teach, I left the pastorate and moved my family to Chicago to pursue a PhD at Chicago Theological Seminary. I’m currently writing a dissertation on the imprisonment narratives in the book of Jeremiah and I reside in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago with my wife Kristin and our two sons, Josiah and Jack.
How Did You Get Connected at Stateville?
My journey in prison ministry has been long. Formally, I’ve preached and taught in prisons as a volunteer since 2001. Informally, I was nine years old the first time I entered a prison to visit someone. Thus, at the age of 42, for more than three-quarters of my life I’ve been connected to prisons and prisoners. I first visited Stateville in 2010 with Kairos Prison Ministry and was later invited by the chaplain to offer Bible studies and some unaccredited college-level courses. Later I met Prof. Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom while she was just beginning to explore the possibility of a program at Stateville and I was honored when she recommended me to teach the Bible courses in the North Park program.
What is one way that your time at Stateville has changed how you see the world around you?
Prisons by design inflict pain and restrict human relationships. As part of the hard work of resisting those forces, prisoners often turn the Bible and place their faith in God as a literal matter of survival. Thus, learning in community with the men at Stateville and hearing their testimonies has deepened my appreciation for the authority of Scripture and the power of God’s Word to form individuals and communities. Through my time at Stateville I have come to know Jesus more intimately and become a better disciple.
Should NPTS students take a course at Stateville? Why or why not?
Absolutely! The classroom at Stateville is the most challenging but rewarding educational space I have ever entered. Prison is filled with great pain and sorrow, but it is also a place where hope is found. There are moments when the Holy Spirit transforms it into a sacred space where lives are changed and people are equipped to join in God’s work of redeeming the world. It’s not comfortable or easy, but anyone who studies at Stateville will be changed.
Last Question: What is one random fact about yourself?
I appreciate a wide range of musical forms and even play a few string instruments (not well necessarily), but I especially love American folk traditions. In 2016 I received a fellowship to study in the Woody Guthrie Archive in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I conducted research on Woody Guthrie’s experience of incarceration. Once I complete my dissertation, I plan to finish a book on the subject.