I’ve been doing this for over 40 years. That’s not a boast. It’s context.

I started in ministry the way a lot of us do. Full of passion, short on experience, and utterly convinced I knew more than I did. My first solo pastorate, I doubled the church in three months. I thought I was something.

Then I lost all the growth. Every new member gone. In six months I’d grown a church and killed it. All on my own.

That failure taught me something that four decades of consulting has only confirmed: no pastor grows a church alone. And no church turns around without help.

I’ve spent the years since then learning everything I could about what actually makes churches grow – not in theory, not in textbooks, but in real congregations with real problems in real communities. I’ve worked in over 1,200 churches across more than 40 denominations. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, what kills momentum and what builds it, what changes everything and what changes nothing.

I hold a Bachelor of Theology from Florida Baptist College, an M.Div. from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, and a Doctor of Ministry from Bakke Graduate University. I’m the President of The Effective Church Group, the oldest, most experienced independent church consulting firm in North America, founded in 1984. I’ve written more than a dozen books on church growth and leadership. I’ve been a guest on Good Morning America and NPR’s Marketplace. I’m the Managing Editor of Net Results magazine and the founder of the Growing Church Network.

But none of that is why you should hire me.

You should hire me if you want someone who will tell you the truth about your church – not what you want to hear, not a polished presentation designed to make everyone feel good, but an honest, specific, actionable assessment of where you are, why you’re there, and what it’s going to take to change it.

I’ve had those conversations with pastors who were ready to quit. I’ve sat with church councils facing the real possibility of closing the doors for good. I’ve delivered recommendations that were hard to hear and harder to implement. And I’ve watched churches come out the other side with new life, new momentum, and a mission that’s actually moving.

That’s what this work is about. Not the report. Not the process. The transformation.

If you’re ready for that conversation, I am too.