I was born and raised on a farm in Minnesota to Scandinavian parents. We never missed going to church unless inclement weather permitted us from attending. I believed in God as long as I can remember and I am thankful for my natural heritage, the protestant work ethic and the moral climate in which I was raised. After high school I joined the Navy and received training as an electronics technician and doubled as a sea and rescue swimmer. After being honorably discharged I worked my way through engineering school as a dorm master and wrestling coach in a private high school. Before graduation, Joanne and I were married. She was a Catholic and we compromised by attending an Episcopal church. I was serving as a senior warden in that church and working as an aerospace engineer when I found the Lord while attending a Lay Institute For Evangelism by Campus Crusade For Christ. It was a little disconcerting to think that I was playing church and allowed to believe that I was a Christian all those years
Two years later God called me into ministry and I resigned my position at Honeywell and enrolled at Talbot School of Theology, which is a graduate school of Biola University. After graduation I served in two local churches as a youth, college, associate and senior pastor. I took a year off to finish my first doctorate and a second masters degree, and then received a call to teach at Talbot School of Theology where I became Chairman of the Practical Theology Department. I accepted the position knowing there were people in the churches I had served who had problems that I didn’t have answers for, and that really bothered me. I believed Christ was the answer and truth would set them free, but I really didn’t know how. I preached and taught the Word of God as best I knew how. I would pray and read the Bible with individuals seeking personal help, but little change took place in their lives.
I obtained permission to teach an elective Masters of Theology class to search for answers. The class doubled almost every year and Lord started bringing all kinds of hurting people to see me. I wasn’t a professional counselor. I was and am a pastor who wants to see every child of God experience the freedom of their new life in Christ. I began to see God set captives free and bind up the broken hearted. Then our family went through a very broken experience and I wasn’t sure Joanne was going to live or die for 15 months. During that time we lost everything we had to cover medical expenses. In the end all we had was God and each other, and that was all we needed. It was resolved for me when Biola University had a day of prayer. That evening during the communion service I knew the trial was over. God brought Neil Anderson to the end of his resources so I could discover His. Freedom in Christ Ministries was born out of brokenness. The Bondage Breaker was my dissertation for a second doctorate, which I completed after Joanne’s recovery.
In the middle of that crisis, I was asked to teach pastoral counseling at Talbot School of Theology, which turned out to be a career changing move for me. Up to that time my expertise was evangelism, discipleship, Christian education, leadership, ethics, and general pastoral ministries. I have always believed that if you were a good discipler you would be a good Christian counselor and vice-versa, but these two disciplines have become totally separate. In my thirty plus years of ministry I have witnessed the demise of discipleship in our churches and an explosive growth in psychology.
