Looking for the extraordinary in the ordinary.
I am a husband, father, neighbor, seminarian, home renovator, and gardener—sort of in that order. For years I have been looking for those strange, subversive patterns of restoration and redemption in my own story, and the stories of those around me. In 2023, I am taking better notes of what I find at home in Western New York, and elsewhere.
Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan University
2021 – Current
After years of dreaming about going to seminary, in the fall of 2021 I finally jumped in. Roberts Wesleyan University was founded by B.T. Roberts and his wife Ellen in 1866 as Chili Seminary for the newly formed Free Methodist Church. Adapting to the trends of higher education in America, the seminary grew into a more traditional college, eventually renamed Roberts Wesleyan in honor of its’ founder, offering a broad range of undergraduate education. Then, in 1998, a renewed commitment to theological education formed Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan University. What I love about this seminary is it’s deep, historical commitment to ministry in Western New York. It is rooted in a specific time and place. The community is small, meeting in Roberts Hall, one of the smallest and oldest buildings on the campus that reminds me of the old schoolhouse in Georgetown I took classes in while I was attending the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington D.C. I am currently working through the Master of Divinity program, aiming to complete my studies in 2025.
Buffalo Vineyard Church
2018-2022
Almost as soon as Amanda and I moved to Buffalo in 2017, we immersed ourselves in the Buffalo Vineyard Church community. Within a few months we bought a small, century-old workers cottage around the corner from the church on the city’s west side, and began the long, slow process of renovating it. We volunteered regularly at 5 Loaves Farm, the church’s beautiful, sprawling urban farm ministry, and built a humble garden of our own. In 2018, I joined the staff of the church in a part-time administrative capacity to manage the finances of the congregation and the farm. Within a year, and with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, my role expanded into a full-time one as an executive pastor—overseeing all the church’s operations, administration, and finances in the midst of tremendous change and uncertainty. We did excellent work. We saw tremendous growth at 5 Loaves Farm. We renovated a house in the neighborhood for the church to use as both office and auxiliary meeting space. We licensed five new pastors, including myself, and commissioned numerous lay leaders in their ministries. We launched a formal children’s ministry program that just celebrated its one year anniversary, and we started a podcast. Perhaps most importantly, with God’s provision, we helped the little congregation we loved navigate an incredibly difficult and frightening few years. At the end of 2022, it was time for rest, and time for change. I transitioned out of my role to be more supportive to Amanda’s new job, invest the time needed in raising two toddlers, and focus more on my seminary studies. We moved out of the city and moved into the country for a fresh start.
Vive
2018-2019
I still remember walking into the kitchen at Vive on my first day as the new Kitchen Manager. Hailing from an entirely different world of hospitality — a world of Michelin stars and New York Times reviews — I walked into what surely was the worst kitchen in the entire city of Buffalo. The difference was that this little hidden kitchen was designed to feed the hundred or so residents of Vive, a shelter for asylum seeking refugees on Buffalo’ east side. This kitchen was not for wealthy world travelers, this kitchen was for the world’s most vulnerable. The years I served as the kitchen manager did nothing short of change my life. The folks I met, many of whom remain close friends, shifted my worldview in ways that I could never have imagined. We did good work. We passed our health inspection (after a few tries). We developed collaborative menus with the Congolese, Sri Lankan, and Somali folks who were housed there. We got chef coats, aprons, and some better knives. We transformed the place, but I was transformed in the process. That little kitchen became the most exciting kitchen that I had ever worked in. It opened my eyes to what ministry actually looks like, and set me on a path I would have never imagined taking.
