Can’t say that I’ve ever written my own “Bio” before--except I do recall an assignment back in grade school-- but here goes my best shot:

I’m a city kid:  grew up in Kansas City, MO, before going to Culver-Stockton College in Canton, MO-- a town of only 3,000.  Go figure.  Graduated in 1979 with a B.S. degree in physical education and an English minor.  A coach and English teacher?  Go figure.  Little did I know I’d meet the woman of my dreams in Canton, my wife Mary, and that we’d raise our family in rural northeast Missouri for 14 years.  I’m an only child, and now I’m a part of a family of six:  Aaron-18, Stephanie-16, Allison-12, and Morgan-6.  Go figure.  I completed my M.S. in Education degree from the University of Kansas in 1987.  I was a devout, practicing Catholic for thirty-seven years of my life before I “wore out” and gave my life to Christ and was immersed in His baptism on Nov. 19, 1995.  Go figure!  I look back with thanks on my Roman Catholic roots that created in me a heart for God that yearned to search for truth. 

After twenty-five years in teaching/coaching, I made a very difficult “leap of faith” decision to resign from my career without a job last spring.  As a result, I wound up joining the staff here at Madison Park on September 1.  From coaching to minister of adult discipleship (actually,  I was a minister as a coach and now I’m coaching as a minister)?   Go figure.  I love to read, write, teach, follow my kids’ activities, golf, exercise, and I am a die-hard Chiefs and Jayhawks fan living in the middle of Rams/Bears and Tiger/Illini territory.   Talk about taking your life in your own hands!   I just summed up my life in under two hundred words.  I’ll let you figure out whether or not that’s the truth.  And the best I can figure after looking back on my life is that the way we think we have everything figured out is far from the way God figures things out.

Steve