About Pastor John

As Pastor of First Baptist I encourage you to participate with us as you grow your faith.  We hope that you will find aplace where you are challenged to develop your relationship with Christ, becoming His disciple, and serving His purposes in our community and world. 

I grew up on the mission fields of Colombia, South America, where my parents  were serving as missionaries.  The mission experiences I had as a child have shaped me and my theologies through the years.  Setting up projectors and helping in mission churches changed into creating mission teams who could support missionaries extending Christ’s grace to our world.  Service and missions are at the heart of the gospels and I believe that Christian growth and maturity occurs as we become active in these fields.

Some will say that four years in the United States Marine Corps was a strange detour in my spiritual pilgrimage.  However, the education I received during these years has helped me respect the differences and issues that every individual has.  One of the greatest urges in every human being is a desire and need to find a community that respects their individuality and allows them to grow and change to face life’s demands.  We try to honor one’s freedom with the theology of the priesthood of the believer.  Each individual is responsible for their faith.  I hope that we can help that faith develop.  As faith grows, we hope that you also feel free to share what you have experienced and learned so that your experience enriches ours.

Much of this freedom was encouraged in my home and in my seminary studies at Ruschlikon Theological Seminary in Switzerland, and at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in North Carolina.  During my studies there I became aware that we are constantly exposed to a number of beliefs that appear Christian, but are not really centered in the Gospels.  My faith exerts that Jesus Christ is Lord and we are to imitate Him as His disciples.  Our world is hungry for spiritual experience that will guide it through challenging times.  Jesus’ message and ministry provides some deep understandings to many issues.  It is our responsibility to explore how that grace and healing spirit may be brought to our world.

Listen to some sermon excerpts