About Me

Life's Purpose:
To be on a perpetual missional journey,
partnering with the Holy Spirit , (John 14)
knowing God intimately, (John 15)
courageously loving my wife and family, (Eph 5)
understanding the times, (I Chronicles 12)
and communicating God’s truth, (2 Tim 3)
in order that this post modern generation might do good works (Matthew 25) and become
selfless, revolutionary disciples who in turn make disciples (Matthew 28).

Education:

Lee University (Cleveland, TN) B.S. in Pastoral Ministry *received department award for academic excellence

Experience:
Youth Pastor, college pastor, men’s ministry and involved in a church plant.Executive Pastor in fast- growing, multi cultural suburban church. Five years with the same church family, Riverside Community Church. Experience preaching to large crowds of predominately younger people. Philosophy of ministry rooted in Scripture and in working models. Skills with small groups, assimilation, and multi staff leadership development. Relational ability to connect and call people to new commitments. A record of integrity that has been seen in action and validated by others. Man who cherishes his wife and sons through servant leadership at home.

Ministry Experience:

Executive Pastor
Riverside Community Church Riverside, MD (2006-2008)

As an Executive Pastor, I assisted the Lead Pastor in ensuring that the strategic ministry objectives of the church were effectively and efficiently attained. In this role, my duties included planning and conducting staff meetings, mentoring and supervising support personnel, resolving personnel disputes, performing necessary corrective action and maximizing ministry models. I also shared the ministry of preaching/teaching and served as a catalyst in the areas of strategic planning, ministry implementation and overall creativity.

Youth Pastor
Riverside Community Church Riverside, MD (2004-2007)

As a Youth Pastor, my soul desire was to produce radical, selfless disciples of Christ who acted more like missionaries within their culture than the consumer driven “Christian” that is so prevalent in churches today. To accomplish this goal, it was important to me to not only teach sound doctrine but to also compel them to act upon what they were learning. This was accomplished through intensive mentoring, Biblically sound teaching and preaching, hands on serving opportunities and a strong emphasis on prayer. The overall goal was to produce young people with a Biblical world view who not only were an integral part of the church body but a vital partner for community renewal.

Assistant Youth Pastor Calvary Worship Center Aberdeen, MD (1999-2002)

As an Assistant Youth Pastor, my primary responsibility was to assist the Youth Pastor with leading weekly Bible studies, administrative duties, personal spiritual growth, teaching and creating innovative gatherings and events. As a Deacon, I fulfilled the role defined in Acts 6:1-7 and helped the elders and the church staff carry out the physical and spiritual ministry of the church.

Media:

Video:

Midnight Musings

Midnight Musings...part 2 (video)

God's in the Details (video)

Roots-teaching series (video)

Teaching:

Roots

Roots (part 2)

Audio:

A podcast of many of my messages

It's worth the pain

It's been a challenging month with Carter because he has had about 10 teeth coming in at the same time! And the poor little guy is just in so much pain...all he can do is stick his fingers in his mouth and rub his gums and whine and cry. I'm sure in his little baby brain he has to be wondering what in the world is happening and why he is in so much pain. But, in a few years, he'll look back on the pictures of him crying in pain and laugh because it was WELL worth it to have a full mouth of teeth.

I feel like I am in the 'teething' stage of my life right now. We are going through some stuff and it just doesn't feel good...in fact, it just plain sucks! It's painful and sometimes it just doesn't make sense but I know somewhere in my pea brain that it's all part of the plan and to just stick it out. And as the days go on, God has begun to reveal some things to Paige and I to make the 'teething' time a little bit easier. Well, maybe not easier, but He has given us some revelations to show us that this time is necessary to get us to where He wants us to be. And when we get THERE, it will be SO worth it!! We will look back on these times and laugh because that temporary pain was necessary to bring the full blessing that God has planned!

If you pray for Paige and I, keep praying...in fact, PLEASE, PLEASE pray a little extra for us this week. There are some things happening that we need God's wisdom, spiritual insight and understanding for because we want to know His will regarding some possibilities for our future. So, please pray and stay tuned for some possible announcements!

Help us to hear again Oh Lord!

I'm watching "True Life" on MTV right now and it's about people that are deaf. There is this 1 particular 16 year old kid who was born deaf but just had an implant surgically placed in his ear that causes him to hear. It is so amazing to sit here and watch someone hear for the very 1st time!

As he's hearing for the 1st time, he is hearing all the things that he only saw before and it is very confusing to him. For instance, he has seen his parents all of his life but he is now hearing their voices and it is 1 big jumble of sound for him...he can't make sense of it. But, the more he listens and hears, things begin to click and he is able to have a complete picture of life...not just what he sees but what life SOUNDS like!

I feel like that is where I am right now in my life in so many different areas. I have talked about "the lost" for so long...how we need to 'win' the lost, pray for the lost, harvest the lost. And I have seen plenty of lost people, but I don't think I ever took enough time to actually listen to them. Now that I'm working a regular job, I have 8 hours a day to hear the lost all around me, and it has changed my life. I HEAR their hopelesness...I HEAR their emptiness...I HEAR that they only want a happy, healthy life but don't know how to get it. I have finally begun to attain a more complete picture of life outside of Jesus and it is miserable!

I think all pastors need to have this experience. I say this because when I was in full time ministry, the only lost people that I interacted with were the lost that came to church on Sunday morning and I only "heard" what they wanted me to hear. But, being in a "3rd place" like a secular job, I hear them with no veneer, raw and unfiltered. I am able to put myself in their shoes and imagine a life without Christ and it has changed me. I only pray that my hearing will grow sharper and crisper in the days to come.

Very sad today

Just this past week, 2 rising stars within the church world have fallen from the great heights that they occupied. Todd Bentley, the evangelist from the Lakeland Outpouring, had to halt the revival and resign from his ministry due to his inappropriate "emotional relationship" with one of his female staff members. And just today I found out that Michael Guglielmucci, a pastor who wrote the awesome song "healer" has been lying for over 2 years about having cancer. Both of these things BLOW my mind! I just cant understand how someone could get up in front of thousands of people and preach or sing a song about God when they are living in a lie. But, then I hear a still small voice in my mind saying "Troy, don't judge, but for the grace of God, it could be you!"

When you decide to truly follow Christ and attempt to make an impact in this world for God's kingdom, you set yourself up for relentless attacks from Satan, other people and your own carnal self. And if we aren't careful, that same call of God that is on our lives could end up backfiring on us and consume us because this God we are following is a holy God and those who approach Him must be holy. This whole situation reminds me of the story of Nadab and Abihu found in Leviticus 10. These 2 young men were the rising stars in the nation of Israel. They were from the tribe of Levi who became priests at a young age and were given the IMMENSE responsibility of making sacrifices in the temple of God. Well, there was something in their lives that they were able to hide from everyone around them but not God. When they approached the Holy and mighty God, they were killed by God because they offered "strange fire" before the Lord. In other words, they did not take His holiness seriously.

I deeply hope and pray that every single Christian leader, pastor and Christians period are paying close attention to these developments because God is still a holy God and requires those who approach Him to be holy too. That thought terrifies me and causes me to examine my life very closely and I hope I will continue to do that.

Convicted by Michael Phelps

I don't know what it is about the Olympics, but I HAVE to watch whatever sport is on tv...I found myself watching rowing earlier:) But there is 1 sport that I don't want to miss and that is men's swimming and that is because of the incredible Michael Phelps! People can talk about Michael Jordan and other so called 'dominant' athletes, but it would be hard to argue that Phelps is the MOST dominant athlete of our times. He backed it up tonight by beating his own world record and earning his 1st (of many) gold medals in this olympics.

Ok, before anyone thinks I am starting the Michael Phelps fan club, I say all that to say this. Michael Phelps got to where he is today because he wanted it BAD! I was watching an interview with him earlier today and I heard him say this and it convicted me to the bone: "If I want to be as successful as I want to be, I have to think about it all the time!" That's so common sense but it's so true. The people in life that achieve greatness are the people that have laser beam focus on 1 thing and they don't allow ANYTHING to throw off that focus. If they succeed, it's because they were obsessed with that one thing...if they failed, at least they failed trying to achieve that 1 thing!

After hearing that, I had to ask myself "am I that obsessed with achieving greatness with God?" Do I really believe my own press clippings when I say "I want to see a revolution in my generation...I want to advance God's kingdom...I want Jesus to say "welcome my good and faithful servant"?" Because if I actually believed those things, I would think of NOTHING else than achieving that goal. It would be all I ate, drank and breathed. If Michael Phelps is that determined to be the best swimmer in the world, how much more should we be to become the biggest servant of them all? To stand before Christ at His Bema seat and hear Him say "well done" is FAR more of a lofty goal than any gold medal...thanks Michael Phelps!

Vacation...THANK YOU JESUS!!

We are going to Bethany Beach with Paige's side of the family for a week next week and I have to say I am looking forward to this vacation more than any other in my life! While I am extremely appreciative of my job at Comcast and everything that is happening in our life right now, I NEED A BREAK! It is 1000 times more stressful when you have no clue what is going to happen tomorrow than when you think you have your life all planned out. We know that God has called us to plant a church in Harford County but it's the waiting for the who/what/where/when/how that is a little taxing.

But, all I have to say is that I cannot wait to get on the beach, pull out a non-thinking, non-pastoral novel that I can just relax and read. PRAISE GOD FOR VACATIONS!!

Carter, get ready for a brother/sister!!!

Yep, you heard correctly...Paige is pregnant AGAIN! We just found out a few weeks ago that Paige was pregnant again and we couldn't be more happy about it!! We always talked about having as many kids as close together as possible, so I guess we're fulfilling that prophesy. So, if you pray for us, PLEASE pray for Paige that she will make it through the morning sickness phase with strength and patience and that both of us would be able to handle what lies ahead. But all I have to say is PRAISE THE LORD!