About Preacher Bob

Preacher Bob wasn’t always “Preacher Bob.” He started as as “Baby Bob,” then over the course of time he was known as “Bag-boy Bob,” Warehouse Bob,” “Truck driver Bob,” and “that smart-*** Bob Guy.” Reared in the Southern Christian tradition, he was as constant source of disappointment and irritation to his parents and other authority figures. Always asking, “Why?” and never being satisfied with “because I said so” as an answer led him on a tireless search for Truth, even if (and especially if) that Truth conflicted with contemporary wisdom or traditional orthodoxy. What he found is that faith journeys more often than not resemble a circle rather than a straight line. Even though Bob came back to “rediscover” Christianity, this willingness to explore all options and alternatives has made him uniquely qualified to understand the nuances of the search for Spirituality and Truth.

Bob did his graduate work at the Duke University School of Divinity where he he had the opportunity to study theology and biblical interpretation under some of the most highly respected biblical scholars in the field. He is an ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church, and has served as a parish minister in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference for nearly 30 years. Bob’s perspective on all things Christian is refreshing and insightful, occasionally disturbing … but always unique and thought-provoking.

My Journey

“I don’t suppose have a ‘creed’ by which I live, but on my stumbling and meandering faith journey, I have acquired a compilation of spiritual lessons. I discovered that following Christ is not a straight line, but rather a zigzag walk. It has made me more conservative in some ways, vastly more liberal in others. It has given me a measure of peace and, if I am honest, has caused me a great deal more agitation than I had known before. If you believe that the Creator of the Universe cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, it gives you a new terror at the clear-cutting of rain forests and the fouling of the air we breathe and the water we drink. If you believe God loves all people, it gives you a new distaste for racism, prejudice, and injustice. I have found the imitation of Christ to be largely an exercise in heartbreak … not that I seem much like an imitator of Christ. I am not a pious marble statue. Believing in Christ, however, has made me more aware of my faults and better at fixing them. We may prefer to wallow in our silly prides and pointless desires, but the glorious kicker of it all is that God loves us anyway. He forgives us and desires for us to be a part of his Kingdom of gentleness, openness, and acceptance, dragging us kicking and screaming if necessary. And I am perfectly content to be dragged.”