“Onesimus” means “Useful,” and my story mirrors that story of Onesimus in that I went from useless to useful to God and to my community.

As a young adult I was living in Las Vegas, and I was living the lifestyle.  My life was somewhere between a Vegas tourist commercial and a public service announcement.  I lived a life full of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, gambling, and women.  I thought I was having the time of my life but was heading to the prison of mental and spiritual wilderness.

In all this, I met my wife, and although my lifestyle changed in some ways, it still was a Vegas lifestyle.  I realized the party-scene was useless, and as a married man, I needed to be useful to society and to my wife, and I started climbing the corporate ladder.  This climbing led to more uselessness of alcoholism and womanizing.  At the height of my uselessness, I was climbing the corporate ladder, but my home life and personal relationship was in tatters.

Somehow, in the midst of our uselessness, God shines in and shows us our usefulness to Him.  As I learned more of who God is, the grace Christ gives, and what it means to be a godly man, I began to understand my own usefulness to God and in this world.  Through understanding that God was calling me to influence my community and society, I was able to leave drinking behind, reconnect with my wife, and leave my corporate job.

Onesimus had to face his choices and the consequences of his choices.  God didn’t save him from his wilderness of life, but he saved him through the wilderness of life.  Christ did the same for me, and now I’m a pastor with a passion for the inner-city and the transformation that comes only through Christ that can change the world.

I currently serve as the associate pastor at College View Baptist in Mesa, AZ and am endorsed by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention as a US Army Chaplain.