Biography
In 2001, I jumped out of pastoring to start coaching and consulting full-time. The structure of this site, and the tools & organizations sections specifically, provide a thorough overview of my life's work since that time.
My pastoral experience before then, includes spiritual formation and leadership development responsibilities at Clear Creek Community Church and FaithBridge in Houston, Both churches have experienced dramatic impact in the same city but represent very different church cultures and unique ministry models.
My style blends the diversity of three worlds leading up to my pastoral and consulting work: process thinking from the discipline of engineering, communications savvy from my experience as an ad agency executive, and practical theology as a pastoral leader. My eduction experiences includes a ThM in Pastoral Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State.
My Family
I live in Houston, Texas with my wife Romy and my three children, Jacob (23), Joel (20) and Abigail (17). I love to get out of Houston as much as possible for mountain biking and snowboarding. Because I'm stuck in Houston too much I finally picked up kite boarding. Our favorite family pastimes include eating Torchy's Tacos, music (The 70s is considered particularly heavenly), celebrating the culture of Chile, video games and fishing.
Influences Before Starting Auxano
I encountered the gospel for the first time as a junior high student in Augusta, Georgia, under the ministry of John W. P. Oliver at First Presbyterian Church of Augusta. During my teen years, I was influenced by a godly mother and the ministry of Harvey Nowland at The Willowdale Chapel in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The most dramatic time of transformation in my life occurred during my college years at Penn State, where God used Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ at the time) and the ministry of Jim Topmiller to envision a call to ministry.
Before and concurrent with my training season at Dallas Theological Seminary, I worked for seven years as a chemical engineer; first for Dowell Schlumberger in oilfields of the Permian Basin (Midland, TX) and then at Jones Blair Paint Company in Dallas. After seminary, I served as as the pastor of spiritual formation and leadership development at Clear Creek Community Church. While serving at Clear Creek, several members worked for a Houston marketing company with a national platform for churches. In 2001, John Manlove Communications, recruited me to build a vision clarity process for their church clients to go through before providing typical marketing services. After three years and incredible response to the visioning process, I followed God’s lead to set up a ministry that would reach more churches than just those interested in marketing services. In February 2004, Auxano was born!
