I was born into a Christian home in Wheaton, IL and came to know Christ as a young man. I enjoyed the blessing of an extended family filled with Christians who modeled for me a living faith in Jesus. My father’s Dutch heritage and my mother’s Scandinavian roots were strongly rooted in the Christian faith and focused on loving God and your family. Both sides of my family made church a priority, so as I grew up, the local church was part of my life continually. God used this environment of family and church to establish my faith during the formative years of my childhood. I cannot remember a time when I did not know that Jesus was Lord. Knowing and loving God were bedrock realities of my growing up years.
I attended the public schools in Wheaton and kept busy with my involvement in all sorts of sports, school groups, and church activities. After graduating from Wheaton-Warrenville South High School I attended Hope College in Holland, MI to study business and French. I spent a semester abroad studying in Dijon, France. In France, God began to deepen my faith in a way that I had never known. As a young man in a foreign country I was beginning to make my own decisions and find my own way in the world. I began to read the Bible and understand the Christian life with greater intensity and devotion. The faith I had as a child began to mature and take deep root into my life. The truth of the gospel came alive in my heart and mind in fresh ways.
Upon graduating from college, I worked at the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Stock Exchange for a few years. But I lacked joy, fulfillment and purpose in my job. God was stirring a restlessness in my soul and I began to sense that God was calling me to consider full-time ministry in the local church. Through a number of different events and circumstances, God led me to quit my job. I began working part-time with the Youth Ministry at College Church in Wheaton while also working part-time for a financial company. This position was a great opportunity to gain practical experience serving in the local church. It was also where I met Ken Carr and began to hear about the church plant that he was leading in Batavia. After working at College Church for a couple years, I was asked to work at Christ the King as an intern working with the Youth Ministry. I served in that capacity for three years before I was asked to be the Associate Pastor in April 2007. In 2017, when Christ the King Church merged with Union Congregational Church in North Aurora to form Living Hope Church, I joined the merged congregation to continue my role as an Associate Pastor.
Kathy and I live in Batavia and have been married for 20 years. We have five children - Luke (18) attends Taylor University, Lindsay (17) and Kyle (15) attend Wheaton Academy and my two youngest – Kate (13) and Kristen (10) – are homeschooled.