Introduction
A lifelong resident of the Tupelo, MS area, I serve as the Director of Spiritual Life and Head of the Bible Department at Tupelo Christian Preparatory School, where I have taught Bible and Mathematics for nearly twenty years. Some of the extracurricular activities I lead at the school include Book Club, Praise Band, and Quiz Bowl. My family is quite blessed as not only do my wife and I teach at the same school, but our son attends there as well. We are all members of a Southern Baptist church in Tupelo, where I lead a Life Group and play drums in the praise band. I am in the midst of writing my dissertation, which focuses on the ways in which the earliest Christians faced death, how these differed from other philosophies around them, and how all of this shaped Christian history. In my leisure, I love reading, cinema, playing music, and kayaking.

Teaching Philosophy
I am the product of a Christian Higher Education, am in my twentieth year of working in Christian Secondary Education, and have placed my own child in Christian education for all of his schooling. Therefore, I cannot help but teach “Christianly”—to show others how to see the world through the lens of Scripture. Augustine rightly says, “[W]hatever truth may be found, it belongs to [the] Master” (On Christian Doctrine 2.16.28). Indeed, Christian Education is only ever “Christian” when it wrangles all of academia under the authority of God’s Word. Whereas a secular education concerns itself with merely materialistic success and simple regurgitation of facts, Christian education introduces students to the true nature of the world and its Creator. Philip Ryken described this type of education as being infused with “the liberating arts,” an education that “prepares students for active service in the kingdom of God.” Such education is what I was created to do.

Statement of Faith
Typical of so many who grow up in the deep south, I walked an aisle and repeated a prayer at a revival when I was quite young, though without any actual belief or repentance. After years of panic attacks and depression and by the time I was ready to graduate high school, I had come to the conclusion that there was no God. My condition worsened so that I was eventually housebound. At the end of my wits, I cried out, “God, if you’re real, prove it!” The Father, being rich in mercy, answered me as I opened my Bible to Ecclesiastes. I immediately found myself in agreement with Solomon’s conviction that this world, by itself, offers nothing but futility. At the end of Ecclesiastes, however, Solomon concludes that meaning can only be found in God and His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Over the next few days, the Gospel rolled around in my soul, with me pulling over my vehicle at a simple car wash and asking Christ to save me. Within weeks of my conversion, I began to realize a general call to ministry. Eventually, this call narrowed to Christian education. In Chariots of Fire, Eric Lidell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” In my nearly twenty years of teaching at a Christian school and through leading various discipleship programs, I know that I feel God’s pleasure most strongly when I am equipping others with the tools necessary to better understand His Word and His world.

Regarding particular creeds, I adhere to the Nicene Creed and what C.S. Lewis would affectionately call “Mere” Christianity. Furthermore, my church adheres to the Heidelberg Catechism and the Baptist Faith & Message.