It has been one of the great joys of my life to watch how God has used the experiences of my life to prepare me for serving Him in various ways over the years. When I was in college, studying radio, television and film, I was preparing for what I thought would be a career in documentary film production. God had a different plan. Instead, I spent the next five years after graduation working full-time in parachurch youth ministry--those were some of the most formative years of my life, in terms of my understanding of the faith, and I was able to get my feet wet in leadership, as well. The training I received during those years also served as the foundation for many years of Bible teaching in my church.

I left the ministry in 1981, and worked for a few years in the local school district, where some of my college training and skills were put to good use in media productions of many types. It was there that I was introduced to computing and programming, which led to a position at the University of Kansas Computer Center, where I worked as a user education specialist, consultant and technical writer. That position led to the job I held for fourteen years with a statewide not-for-profit educational networking consortium, where I served for three years as user services coordinator, and then for eleven years as executive director and CEO. That job afforded me many opportunities to learn both networking technology and leadership.

I left that job a year ago, and have spent the last year honing my skills as a writer and blogger, and learning more about Web design, content management systems, and related technologies. It has been a very good year, and my lovely wife has been incredibly supportive through that whole time.

On January 1, 2009, I will begin a new chapter in my life, as the Director of Media and Communications for my church, where I will continue to lead the contemporary worship arts ministry. I will also continue to manage the church internal network and Web presence as well, and now I will be leading the operations and production teams that produce and present the various forms of media that we use in worship and other church events.

I can see now, looking back, that virtually everything I have done up to this point--my work with radio, television and film production, my experience in vocational ministry, my work in computing and data networking, my experience in Web development, podcasting, blogging, and my years as a musician and worship leader--all of these things are coming together at the right time for this new position.

I don't know what the next few years will hold--it's been a long time since I worked in vocational ministry--but I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do, and I am humbled when I see how His hand has led me all this way, through so many different things.

Everything that happens to us contributes something to who we are and what we will become one day. This new chapter in the story of my life may lead to many other chapters, with new plot twists and turns that I can't even imagine right now. But how cool is it to see the hand of God in the events and experiences of one's life?