My love for jazz began early, listening and playing it early in my teenage years. People I admired encouraged and modeled its appreciation. It was unlike any other music. It was dynamic, engaging, and interactive. It moved me personally while also being relationally connected with others.

It was during that same time that I first met Jesus. I began by listening and then entering into a relationship with him. People I admired encouraged and modeled life with him. I discovered he was not like anyone else I had met, and certainly not like any religion. He was dynamic, engaging and interactive. He began transforming my life personally while also connecting me in the deepest ways with others. He changed everything.

Like jazz and through Jesus, I am continuing to discover life to be dynamic, engaging and interactive. I experience this most deeply through sharing it with my wife Robin. I find it through being a dad of three (now adult) children. I find it through the privilege of serving 35 years as a pastor in four churches, including fifteen years so far at St. James in Littleton. I find it through favorite experiences like fly fishing Colorado rivers, grilling/smoking, traveling and reading. 

Jesus invites us to this dynamic, engaging, and interactive “jazz” way of life. Our lives are one-of-a-kind songs being composed, played and experienced (Ephesians 2:10). They invite fresh imagination and creativity. You may not like jazz or know Jesus, but what you’ll find here is true. I want to encourage you into the dynamic, engaging, and interactive jazz way of life you have been composed for.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21