I’m an Iowa kid who grew up in a great home. Both my parents were public school teachers and taught my brother and I the importance of family, character, and work ethic. Around middle school my parents led our family to start attending a church that taught the Bible, and that really fostered a genuine love for God. It was through that ministry that I grew to really understand the gospel and became more excited about a life fully committed to God. Out of high School I received a scholarship to play football at Arizona State University. It was a boyhood dream, however during that time God’s call on my life to go into full time ministry became stronger than my desire to play football. After my sophomore year, I transferred to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to pursue being a Pastor. That journey has led me to different pastoral roles in Marathon Wi, Manchester IA, Gilbert AZ, and now Cedar Rapids IA. I joined Veritas in January of 2014, and it is such a joy to be a part of this church family.   

Serving God as a pastor has been an amazing privilege. I have gotten a front row seat to God’s work in so many people’s lives. I love teaching the Bible. The gospel is the greatest news ever. I love the local church. There is nothing like a group of people united in Christ and on mission together.  

So intertwined with my ministry is my family. I married the pastor's daughter, my high school sweetheart and best friend Marcy, and she has served alongside me in so many different ways, none greater than being an amazing wife and an incredible mom to our three kids, Moses, Johnnie, and Rudy. I love hanging out with my family, which now includes our daughter-in-law Stacey and grandson Obadiah. On top of that the passions of my life are all things BBQ, and time fishing and camping with good friends in the boundary waters.

My hope is to help lead a group of people that are deeply in love with God, each other, and fully embrace the adventure of living for God’s glory, showing the world that fullness of joy is found in Jesus.

I grew up attending church with my family almost every week. If the church doors were unlocked, we were there, which created a sense of task rather than desire. We moved so many times when I was a child, however, my parents always found a church for us to attend. One night in third grade, I prayed with my father, accepting Jesus in my heart. I can still see this moment: sitting at the kitchen table holding my dad’s hand and listening to his prayer. Although I spent many hours listening to sermons and hearing Bible stories, it wasn’t until many years later my need for Jesus became real to me. 

I met my wife, Theresa, during college, and after graduating began my career as a teacher. As we searched for a local church home, a trusted friend at the school I worked at told me about Veritas, and here we are 10 years later. Veritas had been so different from my previous church experience. I felt conviction for my choices, and the same Jesus I put trust in as a third grader became real and evident that I needed him. So often in my life, I felt that I could work harder, do more, and achievement would come. My trust in God and his perfect plan continues to grow. 

What I love most about Veritas is that pastors and leaders never skip the hard scriptures. They consistently speak bold truth and show their own vulnerability. Another part I appreciate is having a church family alongside me to walk the narrow road together. It's not easy, but it's worth it. Families share struggles as well as celebrations together. It is so awesome to see groups of families praying together all around the building. 

Theresa and I have been married since 2003 and have four amazing kids. I’ve continued as an educator and now serve our district as a building principal. I enjoy spending my free time with family and friends. During summertime, you can find us traveling with our camper and seeking a new place to explore. I love people and never miss the chance to talk to someone. It has been said, “I’ve never met a stranger.” 

I am from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and went to the University of Iowa (molecular biology). I joined the Veritas staff team in 2022 after being on staff at another Salt Network church (Candeo) since 2015.

I grew up in a great home and was involved in church, and youth group as a child. I heard the gospel many times but God finally opened my eyes to its reality and my need for saving grace when I was in high school.

My wife (Emily) and I were high school sweethearts and now we have five kids (Madi, Eliott, Taylor, Lyla, and Ethan). We enjoy sports and the outdoors as a family, as well as trying to make normal and mundane activities fun.

I like the outdoors (hunting, fishing, camping) and making memories with my family. I enjoy spending time both in big cities (NYC, Chicago, etc) and in the middle of nowhere (the mountains, Boundary Waters, etc). I think the book that had the biggest impact on me (other than the Bible) was John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life. I read that in college and knew I wanted to live an intentional life that regularly proclaimed and displayed the gospel.

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that loved Jesus. I don't recall a specific conversion; my faith was marked by immaturity throughout my middle and high school years. I was shaped more by my friends than the Bible, and I wanted one foot in the world and one in the Church. It wasn't until I left home and was out on my own that my faith and devotion to Christ grew during my college years as I was surrounded by more spiritually mature teammates and coaches. My walk with Christ began to grow and mature during those years.  

My wife, Arika, and I met while I was in college and married in the summer of 2004. We moved to Cedar Rapids in 2008. We now have four wonderful and wild kids.

I absolutely love the Veritas family! My family has been coming since the Chrome Horse days. Being surrounded by people who live on mission has grown my faith. I have served as an elder since 2019, and it has been an honor and blessing to serve alongside men who treasure Christ and care for people well, and I love being in the ministry trenches with them!

I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, just about anything outdoors (hunting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, camping), popcorn & family movie night, great BBQ, woodworking, reading about anything written by John Piper, and turning off all the lights in my house that the kids leave on. 

Growing up in a non-believing home, I found myself searching for something — anything that would fill the void in my life — from sports to relationships, to experiences, to success. Of course, we all know where that leads at the end of the day — to the land of disappointment. Despite all that, I found myself praying at the end of the night — often asking God for forgiveness. A few years later in college, I continued down the same path, looking to fill that “void” with all the temptations college life brings. Fortunately, a young lady I was interested in invited me to church where I found myself asking many questions. Not long after, she invited me to a college ministry event at the University of Northern Iowa. On October 10, 1998, God had been preparing my heart to hear the Good News. I just couldn’t believe what Jesus had done for me — taking my place on the cross and allowing me access to a Holy God. Since then it has been a continual sanctification process ever since.  

My wife, Jessica, and our three boys, Maddox, Jace, and Brooks, moved to Mount Vernon in the spring of 2013. Our good friends told us about Veritas — after visiting one time, we knew it was going to be a tremendous place to grow in Christ and a place we would call home.

We have been attending Veritas Church since the Chrome Horse days back in 2013. Shortly after joining the church, I started leading worship and was asked to be a part of that first elder team, and I have been with that team ever since.

I was born and raised in the midwest - spending some time in Illinois and Indiana before my family settled in Indianola, Iowa. I'm very thankful to have grown up with Christian parents who prioritized being active in the church. I remember learning about Jesus at church and from my parents at an early age. I have always struggled with wanting to be good enough for others and measure up to expectations. When I was six, I came to understand that I wasn't good enough and I couldn't measure up and that on my own, I would never be good enough for God. But the good news is that Jesus was good enough and that he made a way for me to be made right with God.

As I went through middle school and high school, I continued to grow in my faith. My junior year of high school, I started serving in our middle school ministry as a small group leader for 6th grade boys. It was through serving there, having multiple conversations with my youth pastor, and a few other experiences, God confirmed my desire to go into full time ministry. I went down to Dallas, Texas to attend Dallas Baptist University and started interning at a church where I would end up working at for the next 6 years. 

In 2014, while in Dallas, a Texas native - Morgan - helped me learn how to country dance and we got married 17 months later. In June of 2018 we moved up to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to work at Veritas. We've since added four kids to our family. 

After missing Texas BBQ for a few years, I have started trying to perfect my own backyard BBQ. When I'm not with the family, you may also see me trying to perfect the world's worst golf swing.

I am very grateful to have been raised in a wonderful Christian family. I am, in fact, a pastor’s kid, and furthermore, a pastor's grandkid. From the earliest age, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who have a genuine and beautiful love for God’s glory and His Church. Being a pastor’s kid, I had a head knowledge of the gospel from an early age. I knew the right answers intellectually, but lacked experiential understanding of the gospel and a love and devotion for Christ. It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that I encountered the living God. I was quite a prideful kid who built my identity on my scholastic performance. So there I was, in my freshman English class, a balloon ready to burst. And that is exactly what happened as I went up to give a speech to the class without my note cards. I bombed. That night, my pride was broken. I felt that I was not good enough. And with that realization, the gospel suddenly became alive to me. I didn't have to be good enough, because Christ was good enough for me. Moreover, he had taken the punishment not merely for a bad grade, but for my abysmal moral failures. And ultimately, he not only bore my punishment, but also gifted me a righteousness that I couldn’t earn, so I can spend eternity with our Maker.  

Veritas Church is quite special to me. This is the church where I was discipled as a less-than-enjoyable teenager, where I met and married my wife, and where my dad baptized me after I got saved. And this only scratches the surface of what Veritas has meant to me. I am beyond excited to serve my home church for the glory of God. 

I married my high school sweetheart, Stacey. As of 2025, we have a joyful one-year-old boy named Obadiah (Obi). Besides hanging out with my family, I have tons of hobbies. I love reading and writing and enjoy studying theology, philosophy, and apologetics. I like to listen to music and make it. I love watching and playing sports (football and basketball) and have been getting into pickleball lately. Finally, I like playing cards and am oddly good at Connect 4. 

I grew up having never attended a church service, and I wore the "atheist" badge with a sense of pride. Then, during my eighth grade year, our family hit a rough patch that included an extended hospital stay for my dad and a general falling apart of our family at the seams. During this time my response to our hardships was to attempt to bear my family's burdens on my fourteen-year-old shoulders. Thinking I could handle things on my own led me to an over-inflated sense of self-reliance that was incredibly fragile and would fall apart whenever I sinned or fell short. Through the prayers and persistence of a group of friends, I began attending a local youth group, primarily because I was not comfortable at home. Over the next year my heart was softened to the Gospel. This culminated in Christ saving me while at a church camp during the summer before my sophomore year. I recognized that I was trying to live as the Lord of my own life and that I was thoroughly incapable of being my own Savior, so I surrendered to King Jesus. After that, Jesus radically transformed my life and has graciously brought me to Himself. To God's glory, my mom and sister are now followers of Jesus as well.

In seeking to treasure and obey Jesus, I have always been open to leading where He calls. I experienced my initial call to ministry as a senior in high school while hearing a Gospel message, I had an overwhelming sense that God was calling me to do the same and to make the spreading of the Gospel and the shepherding of God's people my life work. I received my bachelor's degree in religious studies from the University of Iowa in 2021, followed by my Masters of Divinity from Liberty University in 2024. From 2020 to early 2025 I served as a youth pastor at a great church in Center Point before feeling God calling us to serve at Veritas.

I have had a variety of jobs in my life including: coaching, food service, caring for individuals with disabilities, driving a public bus, and ministry. My wife and I welcomed our first child, Amelia, in January 2024. We enjoy watching movies, spending time with friends, hiking, and anything that makes our daughter laugh! I also enjoy anything sports related, primarily football, soccer, and hockey, but I can get interested in anything!