About Heartmindstrength.com
I often tell people I am a third-generation pastor. By that I mean that my Dad was a pastor and my grandfather before him. You could say professional ministry was in my genes. That doesn't give me as much street-cred as it may appear, however! And after 40 years, as I look back on what God had to do to transform all that natural strength, I realize that my ministry genome--if there is such a thing--means very little.
​In 1980, I graduated from Cornerstone University (now Grand Rapids Baptist College), with a Bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy. That was a big year because I was also ordained as a minister of the gospel and married to Cindy McCormack. Shortly after that, I attended Calvin College (now Calvin University) in Grand Rapids and in 1982 received a Master's degree in Christian studies, focused specifically on "uses of liturgical drama" in worship.
I am not going to recount in detail all the twists and turns of my early ministry here. I do that at length in many of my published resources. But I will say that by 1987, still a young minister, I had burned out and felt washed up, and decided pastoral ministry was not for me. It was then I caught a glimpse of bi-vocational ministry which became a distinctive part of my professional life from that day until the present. Like the Apostle Paul, I have been a "tent-making minister" ever since.
Though I did return to pastoral ministry in 1998, it would never again be as a lead pastor but a part time associate. It was then I became pastor of discipleship and family ministry at Community Evangelical Presbyterian Church where I served until my retirement in 2024..
In 2005, the opportunity presented itself to pursue a lifelong dream to focus my energies on clergy care—the spiritual, emotional and mental health of those like myself and ancestors in professonal ministry. It was then that I became director and clergy counselor for Nehemiah Ministries Inc. In that position I was encouraged to return to graduate school and become a licensed professional counselor, which I completed in 2008.
Over the next years of working with ministers in trouble, I began to develop the specialized treatment strategies and resources that populate this website. Yet, I have never forgotten my life for theology,, philosophy, history and the other “libraries” you find here. They reflect a lifetime of curiosity, research and passion as articulations and expressions of these parts of my life. If you wonder where I am planted in the theological world, feel free to check out this brief doctrinal statement.