I was born and raised in Randallstown, Maryland (Baltimore County) to loving parents and very special older sisters.

What mattered most to us was music, food, and laughter. We weren’t (and still aren’t) perfect but God and His love always radiated through our home in one way or another.

My closest friend growing up was my dog Buster. He and I were the junior men of the house.

While I was baptized in 4th grade, I don’t think I really grasped the radical love and grace of God known through Christ until my Freshman or Sophomore year of High School. Brendan (the nefarious leader of the Fusion Ministry) was my first Youth Pastor. He was the first person to teach me that reading your Bible and going to church were not the epitome of all things Christian. God desires your whole heart, your entire allegiance. Not just selective pious observances. Truly following him is a whole-life endeavor.

By High School I was in desperate need of a healthy outlet for all my smelly teenage angst. I found that outlet in music and went on to study music in college.

College is where I met some of the most important people in my story outside of my own family. I was mentored on piano benches, in dorm rooms and dining halls. If I begin listing names of significant people here I would have to make this bio a lot longer than it needs to be. For now, I’ll talk about the most important person I met in college.

My thoughts about my wife share much in common with what the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said about Coretta: her “gentle manner and air of repose did not disguise her lively spirit.” We were both music majors but from the time we began to take a serious interest in each other we could always talk about much more than music. Coretta enriched Martin’s understanding of “racial and economic injustice and the question of peace.” Beth means nothing less to me and always has forced me to elevate my consciousness of that which is problematic in the realm of social issues, theology and the natural world while also helping me move the needle from cynicism to hopefulness. To this day Beth is to me “a source of constant consolation” who “in the midst of the most tragic experiences…never [becomes] panicky or overemotional.” She is training me to experience truth, goodness, and beauty in everyday life as opposed to only reading about it in my spare time. She is my world.

Much of what I have to contribute to the podcast is related to some of the matters I mentioned above: those issues of social and economic  justice which should be rooted in sound and practical theology. That is because I feel that the Church in America (as I have experienced understood it) has always struggled to value what Christ himself valued and therefore has either responded ignorantly or idiotically to the great social and political struggles in American history or otherwise has outrightly ignored that which is concerning to everyone else.

When not spending time on the biggest issues of our faith and nation I like to read, go for walks with Beth, kick it with friends or watch a good movie (and yes, I am pretty particular about what I consider to be “good”).

I am an ENFP-A on the Myers Briggs scale, I love 19th and 20th century classical music, 70’s funk, 80s rock, 90’s hip-hop and modern Indie. I have more interests and hobbies than are healthy for one person. In another life I would’ve gone to school to study film or photography. In the life next to that I would’ve never gone to school and started my own business. I am never more critical of anyone than I am of myself and I hope to some day teach my kids how hard work, humility and humor help everything in life fall into place.

Thanks for checking us out. Grace and Peace,

Seth