For a history of my professional and ministerial life, please see below:

Transcription

1 I was raised in a Christian home and attended church regularly. My mother s commitment to Christ and raising her children in a godly home ideally situated me to hear the Gospel on a regular basis. At 8-years-old on a Sunday morning during the postsermon invitation, I felt the convicting prompting of the Holy Spirit. I vividly remember turning to my mother and saying, I want to give my life to Jesus. I prayed to receive Christ that day. The two constants during my spiritually formative teenage years perhaps not surprisingly my two greatest passions now were the constant exposure to engaged, biblically sound teaching and a voracious love for scripture. Those two constants directly led to a defining moment in my life, when at 19, after months of intense mentoring by my pastor and youth pastor and my pouring over scripture, God called me into ministry. In mere months I knew that my call was to teach. I had a passion for learning and communicating God s truth to others. It was only three months later that I pursued an education fitting for God s call on my life. I entered college to pursue a Biblical Studies degree. I followed that by going to seminary, where I earned a MA in New Testament Studies. Once I graduated seminary, I completed another graduate degree in English, and I went ahead to complete my Ph.D. in English. My shift from biblical studies and theology to literature came from my love of those Christian writers who impacted culture for the glory of Christ in a far greater capacity than biblical scholars and theologians. There is no series of events or processes more important to my life than my educational journey, as God most used school to shape my faith and life. The BA in Biblical studies, MA in New Testament, MA in English and Ph.D. are the work of God s faithfulness in my life. Educating God s people is my greatest passion, as I see pursuit of biblical and theological education as the direct expression of Jesus s command to love the Lord with the mind. After graduating seminary, I began teaching Bible and theology at a Christian college (that s almost a decade now in Christian higher education). What God has done through my life in the classroom has truly been a work of the spirit of and God s power, as Paul describes his ministry in 1 Corinthians 2:4-6. Early in my ministry, even while in seminary, I sought to plant one foot in the academy and one foot in the church, so a significant part of my vocational life has been ministry in the church. From serving as youth pastor at two churches early in my ministry to being appointed over small groups in one of the top 20 fastest growing churches in the nation (First Baptist Hattiesburg, now called Venture Church) before moving back to Memphis in 2012, I have always maintained a position of leadership in my local church through teaching and Bible study development. From the moment I stepped into church and college classrooms, I knew that God had set me in the place where His gifts could most effectively work through me to serve the Kingdom. I ve given my life to teaching and the scholarly pursuit of God s truth, and it is in the church, as well as the classroom, that faith and learning can intersect and where discipleship and growth in Christ occur. For a history of my professional and ministerial life, please see below:

2 Writing and Scholarly Experience Education Dec Ph.D., Literature. The University of Southern Mississippi. Major area: Modernism (20 th Century British Literature). Dissertation: When the Eternal Can Be Met : Bergsonian Time in the Christian Poetics of C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, and W. H. Auden. May M.A., English: Literature. The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee. Thesis: Functioning Fantasies: Theology, Ideology, and Social Conception in the Fantasies of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. May M.A., New Testament Studies. Harding University Graduate School of Religion, Memphis, Tennessee. Thesis: Election and Unity in Paul s Epistle to the Romans. May B.A., Biblical Studies with a Minor in Biblical Greek. Crichton College, Memphis, Tennessee. Writing Experience and Publications Books When the Eternal Can Be Met: The Bergsonian Theology of Time in the Works of C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, and W. H. Auden. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, Functioning Fantasies: Theology, Ideology, and Social Conception in the Fantasies of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag, Election and Unity in Paul s Epistle to the Romans. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag, Articles Adapting to Depravity: Exploring James Franco s Film Adaptations of Faulkner and McCarthy s Dark Texts. Christ and Pop Culture (2014) Graceful: The Music of Grace Askew. Desoto Magazine (2014) Carrying Cohen s Cross. Desoto Magazine (2014). Art of Abandonment. Desoto Magazine (2014). Grande Mocha Latte, no Whip, old the Regret, one extra shot of Soul. SOUTHERN Magazine (2014). Little Does the Leaf Know. SOUTHERN Magazine (2013). Graduation to Gradation. SOUTHERN Magazine (2013). Hattiesburg Heals. SOUTHERN Magazine (2013). Soul Still Is. SOUTHERN Magazine (2012). Reader, Did You Ever Try to Realize : Postwar Textuality and Rhetorical

3 Fiction Unknowability in Walt Whitman s Memoranda During the War." College English Association Critic (2012). Book review of The Ring and The Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings. The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (2012). Anywhere is Home. The Subtopian Magazine ( Fall 2014) Poetry Driftwood. Muddy River Poetry Review (Fall 2014) Rain Off the Porch. Muddy River Poetry Review (Fall 2014) Well. Tipton Poetry Journal (2014). What the We. Tipton Poetry Journal (2014). Building Barns. Assisi: An Online Journal of Arts & Letters (2013). What the We. Product Literary Journal (2011). The Puzzle and the Past. Product Literary Journal (2011). Sage Sower. Product Literary Journal (2010). On Your Birth. Product Literary Journal (2010). Conferences, Presentations and Invited Talks (Re) Claiming Thomas Merton for the Modern Evangelical: How Merton s Thoughts in Solitude Can Reshape Experience, Theology, and Scripture in the Christian College, to be delivered at the Christianity in the Academy Conference, Union University, Memphis, TN, March Lead Program Coordinator and Guest Reader at Love and Other Derivatives, a poetry reading featuring student poets from Victory University, Hamilton High School, and Germantown High School, April When the Eternal Can be Met : Present Time as Mode of Salvation in Lewis s Theology, delivered at the C. S. Lewis, 50 Years On: What Endures? Conference, Union University, Memphis, TN, March Poetry Reading at Published Poets Forum at Victory University, November Presentation on Online Learning at Victory University for a group of investors from ELAM, known as the largest medical school in the world, July Presentation on Online Learning at Victory University for the Jamaican Community College Leadership Council, Memphis, Tennessee, April Religion and Representation in the Composition Classroom, delivered at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, Missouri,

4 April And the Word Became Text: Using Faith Based Claims in Freshman Composition, delivered as a part of the panel Come to Jesus: The Heuristics of Science & Faith in the Southern Composition Classroom, at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, Georgia, April When the Eternal Can be Met : C. S. Lewis s Theology of Time, delivered at the Christianity in the Academy Conference, Union University, Memphis, Tennessee, March The Poetics of a Dark Christology: Grief, Theology, and Natural Discourse in Tennyson s In Memoriam, delivered at the Mississippi Philological Association Conference, The University of Southern Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, February The Voice of the Unknowable War: Themes of Unknowability and Postwar Textuality in Walt Whitman s Memoranda During the War, delivered at the National College English Association Conference, San Antonio, Texas, March Reader, Did You Ever Try to Realize : Postwar Textuality and Rhetorical Unknowability in Walt Whitman s Memoranda During the War, delivered at the Mississippi Philological Association Conference, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, February To Hell with the Author: Authorial Construction and Literary Device in Thomas Nashe s Pierce Penniless His Supplication to the Devil, delivered at the Faculty Graduate Research Colloquium, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, February Living Life All the Way Up : Hemingway s Modernist Depiction of Morality, delivered at the Arkansas Undergraduate/Graduate Conference on Literature, Rhetoric and Composition, Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, November Functioning Fantasies: Theology, Ideology, and Social Conception in the Fantasies of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, delivered as a part of the Fantasy, Memory, and British Heritage Section at the Children s Literature Association Conference, Normal, Illinois, June Medieval Messianism in Celtic Hero Texts: A Look at Christianized Depictions of the Hero through Food in The Voyage of St. Brendan and The Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedón, delivered at the Second Annual Graduate Colloquium in Medieval Literature, The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, May Edmund, Aslan, and the Structures of a Fantastic Theology: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as C. S. Lewis Presentation of the Self and the Other, delivered as a part of the C. S. Lewis Panel at the Biannual Modern Critical Approaches to Children s Literature Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, March Cornelius, Sarapis, and the Literary Form of Deity Propagation: A Study of Acts 10:1-11:18 in Light of Ancient Hellenistic Sources, delivered in the New Testament Section at the Central States Regional Meeting of the Society

5 of Biblical Literature, St. Louis, Missouri, March Election and Unity: Paul s Rhetorical and Theological Use of Election in Romans in Light of the Historical Situation among the Christian Community in Rome, delivered in the New Testament Section at the Central States Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, St. Louis, Missouri, April Wrath and Unity: Paul s Rhetorical and Theological Use of Wrath in Romans, delivered in the New Testament Section at the Southeastern States Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, Georgia, March Selected Teaching and Academic Experience Visible Music College, Vice President of Academics, 2013-Present Over all of the college s academics ENG 3231 Christian Literature: C. S. Lewis BTM 4000 Philosophy for Christian Thought Ecclesia College, 2014 Online Course Designer of C. S. Lewis and English II Courses Union University, 2012-Present Online Course Designer for English and Literature Victory University (formerly Crichton College), Assistant Professor of English/ Christian Studies, 2012-Present Online ENG 1102 Composition I ENG 1202 Composition II EN 2012 World Literature EN 3712 Intro to Poetry BT 2000 Christian World and Life View VU 2100 Faith and Learning Campus EN 1102 English Composition I EN 1202 English Composition II EN 2012 Themes in World Literature EN/ED 2003 Literature for Children and Adolescents BT 1010 Invitation to Christian Theology BT 1020 Invitation to Christian Perspective and Practice (Christian Worldview) BT 1110 Invitation to the Old Testament (Old Testament Survey) BT 2100 Invitation to the New Testament (New Testament Survey) BT 3203 Prophetic Literature BT 4003 Johannine Writings

6 BT 4100 Paul BT 4103 Jesus BT 4513 New Testament Studies: Romans The University of Southern Mississippi, Teaching Assistant, ENG 101 Composition I ENG 102 Composition II ENG 203 World Literature Ministry Experience I have served at two churches as youth pastor for a combined time of three years. During my time in youth ministry, I successfully created evangelism programs, discipleship classes, facilitated events and conferences and led large groups of youth on mission trips. In addition to youth ministry, I have worked in college ministries at two different churches. My primary responsibilities included teaching numerous Bible studies as well as organizing college groups for service trips and community events. Essentially, I focused on teaching to empower college students in their ministries on their respective campuses. I served on staff at First Baptist Hattiesburg (one of the top 20 fastest growing churches in the nation in 2012, now called Venture Church) in Hattiesburg, MS, as Director of Spiritual Growth. I oversaw small groups (discipleship groups called Growth Groups available to each age group in the church beyond high school). I helped plan and create curriculum for these discipleship groups as well as taught at least one group per semester. The results in both numbers and demonstrable spiritual growth were outstanding. My family now attends Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis where I fill in for my pastor when he is unable to preach and where I teach Sunday school for young adults. College Ministry My primary vocation since 2006 has been teaching in Christian colleges. My calling has been to engage academia with a Christian worldview through discipleship, teaching and writing for the intellectual and spiritual growth of my students. While serving on faculty in both the English and Bible department at Victory University (Memphis, TN), where I served from 2006 to 2013, I created an elaborate and socially engaged discipleship program, led students on two international mission trips and invested considerable time each week to one-on-one student mentoring. After leaving Victory University because of the school s closure, I accepted a position as Vice President of Academics at Visible Music College, also in Memphis. Since being at

7 Visible for the last year, I have created the school s first student body-wide discipleship program, which to this day has trained 50 students to both be discipled and make disciples. Several students who completed my discipleship program have gone on to begin their own discipleship groups. In addition to church and college ministries, I have started several books clubs and writing circles. These groups exist to help likeminded Christians exchange ideas and share their art in a safe and refining context.