My friends call me John. I am an author, a mentor and a minister. I have taught graduate-level theology and lectured in many contexts. I love preaching Christ crucified. My theology is best described by Martin Luther’s big idea of theologia crucis. My view of God is expressed in Jürgen Moltmann’s idea that incarnation means Jesus is “The Crucified God.”

I have enjoyed writing since I was a young boy. I devoured books and wrote stories. By the time I reached my late twenties I had published several reflections in print. Over the past fifty years I have written for magazines, theological journals and various newspapers.

My work as a published author began in the early 1990s. I have authored eight books and edited eight more. I consider my first significant book to be Your Church Is Too Small (Zondervan, 2010). Costly Love: The Way to True Unity for All the Followers of Jesus (New City Press, Hyde Park, NY: 2017) was the result of a lifelong pursuit to love God and others. I’ve also enjoyed developing several film documentary projects, especially One: Following Jesus’ Call for Unity (Vision Video, 2020).

My recent book is my most important. Tear Down These Walls: Following Jesus into Deeper Unity (Cascade Books, 2021) is what I call a work of memoirist theology. Stories are used to advance my vision of unity in Christ’s mission.

In 2019 I retired from a wide-ranging public ministry that I founded in 1991. (I spent 20 years in pastoral ministry before I launched this wider mission.) In my retirement I remain deeply committed to mentoring, teaching and building grace-based friendships.

I married my best friend Anita on December 26, 1970. (Yes, we were crazy to get married the day after Christmas!) We have lived together in suburban Chicago for over fifty years. I have two adult children and four grandchildren that I dearly love.

I was originally ordained as a Baptist minister. Some years ago I became a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America (RCA). I graduated from Castle Heights Military Academy (Lebanon, TN) in 1967 and attended the University of Alabama (1967-69). After transferring to Wheaton College I received my B.A. (1971) and M.A. (1973) degrees. I received a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) from Luther Rice Seminary in Atlanta (1979).

I love God, people and Christ’s church. I enjoy the arts, film and American history. I have quite avidly followed baseball and college football since high school. At the center of our home is our mini-dachshund, Gwinnie. As Anita says, “She is our only child who never left home.“