As an African American man, born and raised in Baltimore City, with two professing parents from a Pentecostal tradition, I was raised “in the Church”. Despite my religious upbringing, tainted portrayals of Christian living distorted my view of the institution. My mother, however, engendered a profound appreciation for sincere intimacy with a personal, loving, compassionate, and faithful God. At a young age one Sunday I responded to the “Altar Call” handing over my life to the Lord. Accurate to my expectations not much changed in my life after “conversion” though seeds were sown that would bear fruit in the years to come. 

In high school, as a student-athlete, I sidestepped many of the sinful habits of a typical Football team captain and maintained the “right behavior” learned from my religious upbringing. Effective smokescreen that it was, it did not protect me in my collegiate years from a path that led me further away from God. The Lord’s gentle yet firm hand revealed the folly in the hedonistic and self-absorbed lifestyle I participated in at the University of Maryland College Park. I finally stopped merely regretting my sins and started repenting for them.

After transferring from College Park to the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), I stumbled through various Christian organizations following my mother to a Reformed PCA church. Exposed to the church’s firm commitment to Biblical fidelity, I was supplied the assurance and peace my heart longed for after years of searching. After graduating from UMBC with a BFA in Digital Animation, I joined Campus Crusade for Christ while working in a digital imaging research lab on campus. There, I truly engaged my faith in ministry for the first time. This winding path ultimately resulted in me volunteering as a youth leader in the same PCA church that awakened me to Reformed Tradition. There I also met my wife, Kelly Joy, who also volunteered as a youth leader and assisted me in founding a Young Adult Ministry at our church. After marrying and serving as joint Youth Ministry Directors we had our first child Aria Grace. Following a prayerful period of soul-searching we then began our journey toward full-time ministry beginning my classes at the Reformed Theological Seminary in the summer of 2020. This summer proved a challenging one as racial unrest pressed the boundaries of unity within the American Church. We sought an internship at a church that was on the front lines of pursuing racial unity. I was directed to Faith Christian Fellowship, a PCA church located in Pen Lucy Baltimore City. Under the mentorship of Pastor JB Watkins and the FCF Session, I have begun my journey to complete my Master of Divinity Degree part-time. Our second child, Kalvin Michael, was born during my second year at RTS. It was around this time I perceived my call to pursue a Systematics Ph.D. concerning Partiality and Biblical Love with the ambition of teaching at a Reformed Seminary. 

I am called to be a bridge for those convicted to pursue the biblical mandate for “maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” found in Ephesians 4:3. The Lord laid this mandate heavily on my heart, particularly concerning the racial divide that persists within the Church. The Reformed Presbyterian Tradition’s Doctrine on Church Government uniquely equips us to combat racial disunity through its execution of duties belonging to an Elder. The Declaration of Independence states that “all men” are created equal. The founding document of the Church (God’s word) says, “[Jesus] put to death the enmity… so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man” (Eph 2:16). If the Reformed church is committed to doing as its constitution states then we must be encouraged, convicted, and guided to live out this unity, both in thought and deed. This conviction must be especially engendered among church leadership in a way it has not been in the past. Seminary professors are uniquely equipped to train and exhort generations of teaching elders and ministers to exercise oversight of the spiritual interest of the church, particularly as it pertains to racial unity. The scarcity of African-American professors in Reformed Seminary spaces is evident. Yet the unique obstacles presented to minorities seeking these Seminary positions are less evident. Completing the necessary education while gaining necessary experience in ministry is no small feat. Support, spiritual, emotional, and financial, will be key elements of my potential success. As an African American in an interracial marriage that is devoted to the Confessional Tradition, I have a vested interest in achieving racial unity in our midst. I am convicted that enabling Confessional leaders to confidently approach and exhort their congregations on maintaining the biblical unity secured in the cross is my calling.