Originally from Iowa, he graduated from Iowa State University with his B.A. and from Purdue University with an Executive MBA. In 1981 he was radically saved from a life full of drugs, alcohol and dead religion. He married his wife, Barb, in 1983, and although he sensed God’s call to ministry, he spent the next 18 years in corporate business management, overseeing business in many different parts of the world.