Featured Alumnus - April 2024

It is crazy to think my time at CCHS came to an end seventeen years ago, and what comes to mind is a bittersweet feeling. Bitter in the sense I feel I didn’t take full advantage of my time there. My years there were amazing, but as I look back, I regret not leaning in academically, not taking hold of all the opportunities made available, and not embracing the community. Reflecting I realize how formative those years were. I see how God had been working through the staff, teachers, and administrators as they showed and shared the love, grace, and patience of Christ.   

After graduating I went on to Columbia College Chicago where I studied audio engineering. I had always been involved with church, and it was also in this season of life that God tested and refined my faith.  I was able to better develop a biblical understanding that would help shape how I was being called to think about and engage culture. In the summer between my junior and senior year of undergrad, I met my now wife. Shortly after graduation and being married for a few months, I was offered a job as a youth pastor, and we moved to a small town in central Indiana. After a few years, with two small boys and one that would come later, I moved on and started working at Indiana Wesleyan University. I was at IWU for seven years while my wife and I served the local church, grew a family (three boys), and became a foster family. Our aim as a family was to live missionally at home and work. My goal was to prepare myself so that if a new opportunity for vocational ministry arrived, I'd be equipped. 

In 2017, as part of the preparation process, I started seminary at Moody Theological Seminary. Again, I found myself in another refining process. In 2021, towards the end of my seminar degree, my family was called to the pastorate in the north suburbs of Indianapolis. We now live in Westfield, Indiana, and I serve as the lead pastor at Westfield Friends Church. It has been such an amazing experience to be in a place where we are aiming to be a community of believers who love God and love our neighbors. I am constantly in awe at how God is at work here. 

Looking back at my time at CCHS, I think about the ways God prepared my heart, mind, and soul through the community and the educators. During my high school years, I experienced the love, grace, and mercy of Christ that would shape and foster a love for learning and community so many years later. In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis essentially argues that education should be both informational and formative. In other words, education is discipleship. I am beyond grateful that I was able to be a part of a place whose mission is to be a Christ-centered learning community intent on restoring God’s world.