An introduction to me, my family, and our adventures...
A bit about me & my family... and yes that's me in the Stormtrooper armor
.
Thanks for checking out my site....
Here is WAY too much information:
Brendan is a husband, dad, & pastor who loves Jesus, Comic-Con, Star Wars, music, guitars, food, coffee, dogs, cars & not driving off cliffs anymore. He’s been married to Susie for over 25 years and they with their two kids & two doggos live in the Lakeside community of San Diego. Brendan has served in ministry for over 30 years, has co-authored books, written for Worship Musician Magazine and Worship Leader Magazine, created content for Worship Team Coach and has taught at many national and international conferences & training events. He is passionate for vertical worship, sharing the truth and showing love in practical ways, community engagement, servant leadership, helping people grow closer to God, and equipping & empowering the saints to serve others with their gifts and talents. He served as the founding lead pastor at Sanctuary Church in San Diego from 2021 to 2025, has loved being part of the ministry team at a variety of churches as a pastor for the past twenty years, and is excited to be part of building a community of faith that is a safe place of healing, restoration and healthy growth closer to God and others.
From Brendan:
The call God has on me for ministry is to shepherd followers of Jesus, disciple and help others worship Jesus, develop in others a focus on the transforming power of life in the body of Christ, model an effective approach to worship blending technology and teaching, creating a vibrant expression of the worship arts based on strong biblical preaching that’s life relevant, leading bold evangelism in the community, and bringing together people from all walks of life to worship Jesus Christ.
My personal mission statement is: To have a life worth imitating and a faith worth considering...
To live and lead a lifestyle of worship.
My purpose is to know Jesus better, and to help others grow closer to him.
The Apostle Paul once described himself as trying to be all things to all people so they could relate to what he was saying, and that’s what I've made an intentional effort to model in my life. Whether good or bad, I do embrace the wide range of experiences that have served to form my character development.
In no particular order, I am a shepherd pastor, teacher, musician, chef, navy brat, father, husband, Star Wars fan, Browncoat, Trekkie, recovering Catholic, adopted San Diegan, Coronado Islander, motorsport enthusiast, gamer, marksman, collector of oddities, coffee connoisseur, and appreciator of the finer things in life, such as not driving off cliffs (anymore).
As you read the TLDR below, just know that ADHD is my superpower. I also have Auditory Processing Disorder and Dyslexia, so if you are a fellow neurodivergent, I see you.
Education & Professional Experience
I completed my Master's of Divinity from Haggard Seminary at Azusa Pacific University, taking a measly 19 years to finish, while concurrently earning a Master's of Educational Technology. I probably took longer than any other seminary student ever, having started the program in fall 2001, just one week before the events of 9/11, and graduating in May 2020. And I definitely have completed more postgraduate units than anyone ever for a Master's degree, coming across the finish line with 140 units (for a 74 unit degree). With 66 units post master's, I'm well on my way toward my DMin, working on my doctoral dissertation exploring healthy leadership within the church.
I’ve been actively involved in ministry leadership for 30 years as a pastor (lead pastor, executive pastor, worship pastor, administrative pastor, outreach pastor, small groups pastor, men's ministry pastor, creative arts pastor, facilities director, IT & technologies director, office manager, community engagement director, social media & web manager, and minister to college-age, high school, and jr. high school groups).
In late 2021 we started a new church called Sanctuary San Diego, which gathered in the Blossom Valley/Lakeside area of East County. We met on a horse ranch for our weekend services, in addition to getting together in people's homes and engaging online. In late 2024 we hit the pause button on our active gatherings in order for me to experience my first sabbatical break from ministry work in 30+ years of serving, and as part of that reflective and restorative time on sabbatical, we decided to keep that pause button pushed on Sanctuary's live in person activities, responding to the Lord's call to join in with a healthy local church and serve in that community.
Susie and I have served a wide variety churches in different denominations, associations, and flavors of expression here in Southern California and the Midwest for over our three decades of ministry together.
For many years I have routinely performed Biblical counseling (marriage and family, grief, crisis and critical incident response, etc). My wife and I LOVE to help newlyweds navigate the waters of married life in home based Groups where couples can develop life long friendships and connect in a space that fosters safe sharing, transparency and invited accountability.
The entirety of my ministry career has been multivocational, or as the newly minted term "covocational" implies, complicated. Normally the term used is "bivocational" but I have always had to have multiple side hustles to support my family. I like to tell people I work for the Navy to finance my terrible ministry habit :)
Over the years I have been a chef at a Greek restaurant, a high school teacher and administrator, a music instructor, a magazine writer and book co-author, an automotive technician, an HVAC technician, a speaker/educator/trainer/coach for leadership development conferences and workshops, a radio DJ, a studio and touring musician, a content creator for websites, and a YouTuber, among other side hustles that I've delved into briefly. My current weekday job is serving as a supervisor for Work & Family Life and Exceptional Family Member Programs at Fleet and Family Support Center Naval Base Coronado, providing support to military service members and their families.
My articles published with Worship Leader Magazine and Worship Musician Magazine can be found on my media page here in the top menu. I enjoy teaching sessions at worship conferences, and helping develop and coordinate local Worship Leaders Networks, where I assist other worship leaders in developing their ministry teams. For four years I coordinated a local gathering of worship ministry teams in cooperation for multi-church nights of worship called Encounter, partnering with pastors from Canyon Springs Church, Horizon Valley Center, Mira Mesa Christian Fellowship, Horizon North County, and several others to bring this event to fruition 4-5 times a year. In 1997, with some longtime friends I co-founded the San Diego Worship Leaders Network, which currently has over 800 members engaged in supporting one another as we serve our local churches through worship and technical ministry.
Family
My family is not perfect and we do struggle through many life challenges together, like just about everyone we know. My wife Susie was diagnosed with leukemia in July 2020 and she has been fighting cancer ever since. We are grateful that she has a positive prognosis, and prayerfully encouraged that the medical treatments and much prayer are so far being very effective in beating back the cancer! We are extremely thankful for the tremendous support we've received from our church community and circles of friends in our geek & car communities, in providing prayer and meeting practical and financial needs as we've walked this road together.
In December 2024 my wife Susie and I celebrated 25 years of married life together, and we are thrilled to have two amazing teens we refer to as Hobbit #1 and Hobbit #2, as we have generally tried to keep their names off social media. Hobbit #1 is enjoying life as a college student here in the San Diego area, and Hobbit #2 is continuing the high school journey here in San Diego. We also have two dogs, two turtles and a gecko rounding out the family.
My wife has her Master’s degree in Special Education and taught kindergarten/first grade bilingual students with mild to moderate disabilities in the inner city, until our kids entered the picture. She was a stay at home mommy for 11 years, but as our kids have reached school age, she's been finding opportunities to serve in ministry and returned to the education field as a teacher helping special needs students. She enjoys scrap booking, antiques, reading, Trading Spaces, and is a closet Trekkie, Browncoat, & Tolkien fan. She was born in Costa Rica, grew up in San Diego, and is fluent in Spanish – and is teaching our children to speak Spanish. Susie helped lead the Mothers of Pre-Schoolers ministry at our church for several years, and was a core member of our Moms On A Mission group.
Passion & Calling
My main passion, anointing and calling in ministry is for Word centered worship that is passionately experiential and life transforming, the spiritual care and mentoring of Christ followers, and servant evangelism with a focus towards long-term community impact.
Susie and I believe that as a husband and wife we are both called to serve in ministry, and we have had the wonderful experience of serving together in several ministries through our years together. Susie and I started and led a Young Married ministry that has continued to grow and develop far beyond our five years of involvement. We also worked together for several years in community outreach, in our church’s servant evangelism kindness outreach ministry, which I later came to co-lead as assistant pastor. And of course, Susie was instrumental in helping launch Sanctuary as a new church in San Diego, helping with all the hospitality and fellowship aspects of our gatherings, and keeping me centered.
Music is a huge part of my life, and I spend a great deal of time listening and performing. I strive to always be developing my worship leading abilities and musical skills, and I add new songs to my repertoire constantly. I’m proficient on many different instruments, including electric and acoustic six string guitars, twelve string acoustic, four and five string bass, keyboard, violin, viola, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, oud, bouzouki, drums, djembe, cajon, conga, bongos, maracas, and I lead from vocals. I’d love to learn the electric cello, bagpipes and taiko drums. Currently I'm working on relearning the traditional Irish Penny Whistle and the Peruvian flute.
Personal Background
I grew up in a Navy family, so I basically lived everywhere; we moved 25 times in 21 years, but I consider San Diego to be my home town. We just completed what was lifetime move #41 for me, relocating from Alpine to Lakeside.
It should be known as well that I am the prince of Navy brats – my dad was a highly decorated two-star admiral & multiple war veteran, and I took great advantage of being his son to exercise my bratness on many military bases around the world. Unfortunately he was killed in the line of duty when his F-18 went down in May 1995. Dad was an amazing role model and I miss him dearly. As a long-term survivor, I participate with the organization TAPS: Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (www.taps.org) as a Care Group Facilitator, Peer Mentor, chaplain, and group leader for young adult children of military service members who have died in the line of duty, and I proudly serve other Gold Star families.
I'm a car guy and I love spending time on cars – restoring them, modifying them, repairing them, racing them, driving them, and yes, even just looking at them. I've got a YouTube channel focused mainly on DIY auto repairs for the average shade tree mechanic, and the SoCal Car Culture scene: Cliffjumper Cars
Over the years I've created hundreds of videos posted ranging from live song performances to DIY car repair tutorials, and as of 2025 I've had over 1 million views on my channel!! Feel free to look me up, subscribe and share some of my videos! Cliffjumper is callsign, bestowed upon me for my infamous experience driving off a 300 foot cliff in Malibu.
My garage is full of every random tool ever conceived of for auto maintenance, and some that were never meant to be used on a car. Sometimes I have to make my own tools to fix things that break on cars that are no longer supported by their manufacturers (for some reason I am drawn to “problem” cars, rare & hard to find parts for). I love being involved in the car scene, hanging out with different auto clubs and communities. I use that connection as an evangelistic opportunity to share the love of Jesus, with 1 Corinthians 10:31 as my inspiration: whatever I do, I do it for the glory of God.
Volunteerism & Charity Work
As alluded to previously, I am also a huge sci-fi geek, and helped found the San Diego Star Wars Society in 2002, serving on its leadership team now for 20+ years, supporting local charities, our military families, and schools through participation in events and fundraising. I'm also a 20+ year veteran member of the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, and Droid Builders, participating as a cosplayer and builder, and I've recently joined up with the Sci-Fi Coalition to help serve the community through volunteerism.
For 40 years, I served as a volunteer with Comic-Con International. In 1985 I joined as a daily volunteer, adopted into our special nerd family by my longtime, friend Alan Campbell, who encouraged me to lie about my age to join the volunteer team with him on security. Over the years I got to help out as a volunteer in Line Control, Gaming, Registration, Disabled Services, and in 2002 - yes, that seems to have been a significant year for me in nerd life - my little brother convinced me to join the organization as a voting Committee member, and I began serving as a department staff member in Programming. That same year I began creating and hosting panels at the convention as an Industry Professional, and I began having a booth as an Exhibitor.
15 years later, I retired from the Programming department as a senior staff member after being recruited by my dear friend Clydene Nee to help her as her Department Assistant in Artist Alley, facilitating the team in our How To Room, promoting educational programming and content designed to equip and empower creative people, recruiting new talent to the department, training and empowering leaders, and building connections with artists and creatives to provide panels for our programming room. In February 2025 I officially retired from volunteering with Comic-Con, after 40 years of serving, though I do plan to continue being an active contributor as an Exhibitor and Industry Professional for as long as they'll have me.
I'm also a founding member of Geeks4Christ and enjoy collaboration with Geeky Guys & Gals for God, and the Christian Comics Arts Society, with whom we've partnered to host a worship chapel and outreach events at Comic-Con for about 15 years.
I enjoy most cheesy sci-fi and fantasy (Firefly, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, the Matrix, etc). I do have fun playing Halo & Forza Motorsports on Xbox with my friends when I get the chance, and I spend time keeping up with friends online through social networking, mostly Facebook and Instagram these days. I am also a proud child of the 80’s and love memorabilia and music from the best – check that – the most *radical* decade ever. Hitting up events like Radwood that celebrate this period in time are one of my favorite things to do! And I play in a cover band that does a lot of 80s hits too.
Somewhere in all this I’ve been involved in the film/TV/media industry. My geeky friends & family who work in this medium are probably somewhat to blame, but I’m drawn to the production aspects of film making such as costume & prop making, musical scoring, and special effects and cinematography. I’ve had the pleasure of appearing on screen on a couple of TV shows and movies as an actor, so as weird as it sounds, I’ve been a member of SAG and AFTRA and I have an IMDB page online. A few years ago I had the opportunity to appear as a Stormtrooper on the Deal or No Deal Star Wars Special, and recently I was in a Super Bowl commercial for the NFL. Just one of those weird eclectic experiences I've been blessed to have.
Squirrel
Yes, I have ADHD. And Dyslexia, and Audio Processing Disorder. They've been challenges I've overcome thanks to the self discipline taught me by my parents, and as a neurodivergent, I find that my special attributes make it possible for me to connect with others that are not neurotypical, and be an encourager for them. ADHD is my superpower. Auditory Processing Disorder is my kryptonite. Dyslexia is just an annoyance.
As far as employment goes… I've most often been what you could consider multi-vocational, and what those in ministry would call a tent maker. I’ve been the senior chef of a Greek restaurant; started working there in 1995 and was serving there once again until the end of 2017 – it was a true blessing to have a place that I can go back to when everything else falls through! I’ve also been a high school teacher (government, economics, guitar, English, religious studies, Spanish) musician, and pastor (as mentioned earlier). After being laid off from teaching in 2008 in the great recession, I substituted for a couple of years until joining the staff at CBC.
From September 2010 until January 2015, I was blessed to be on staff at San Diego Community Bible Church. After an 8 month search process, the Lord led us to Indiana where I joined the staff at SSBC from September 2015 until September 2017, and then He brought us back to San Diego once more, to serve at Quest Church from September 2017 until October 2021. I was invited to rejoin the ministry team at Community Bible Church in December 2021 as an interim pastor while we were concurrently launching Sanctuary Church, and in February 2022 I also began a new adventure as in a completely different field, as an HVAC technician with Air Temperature Specialists. In November 2022 I pivoted from HVAC work to being a Work & Family Life Consultant with Navy Fleet and Family Services as my weekday job, and in October 2023 became supervisor for WFL and EFMP programs at Naval Base Coronado.
Yes, it was a busy season, working a full time weekday job while pastoring at two churches, while being a husband to a wife fighting cancer, and dad to two teens! In an effort to simplify, I prayerfully hit the pause button on ministry service for a season of sabbatical, starting in October 2024, anticipating a return to ministry sometime in 2025.
In the midst of all of this, I’m an avid writer. As mentioned, I have articles regularly published by Worship Leader Magazine and Worship Musician Magazine, authored chapters for a book called "Superhero Grief: The Transformative Power of Loss" that was published in summer 2020 and is now being used as a textbook for many universities, and just finished my contributions for the follow up, Superhero Grief Volume 2, which deals with non-death related loss. My chapter covers Complex Spiritual Grief, dealing with the issues of loss of spiritual community, loss of faith, loss of trust in spiritual authorities, spiritual abuse and neglect.
I have several books of my own in process which I haven’t quite taken to the submission stage yet, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll jump into the book publishing fray at some point soon, rather than keep this stuff all to myself. (Thanks to my friend Margaret Feinberg for the inspiration and encouragement!!!)
And... I recently released my first few singles on iTunes, to be followed shortly after by a six song EP and a full length 13 track album. Unless my finish my Christmas album first. Because... squirrel.
All things considered, this overview is not exactly brief, but it’s a pretty good snapshot of this particularly geeky pastor whose site you’re reading. If it strikes your fancy, please shoot me an email, follow me on Instagram or Threads, message me on Facebook, text me, tweet me, or you could get all crazy and call me on the phone. But really, who still does that now? ;)
Thanks for checking out my site....
Here is WAY too much information:
Brendan is a husband, dad, & pastor who loves Jesus, Comic-Con, Star Wars, music, guitars, food, coffee, dogs, cars & not driving off cliffs anymore. He’s been married to Susie for over 25 years and they with their two kids & two doggos live in the Lakeside community of San Diego. Brendan has served in ministry for over 30 years, has co-authored books, written for Worship Musician Magazine and Worship Leader Magazine, created content for Worship Team Coach and has taught at many national and international conferences & training events. He is passionate for vertical worship, sharing the truth and showing love in practical ways, community engagement, servant leadership, helping people grow closer to God, and equipping & empowering the saints to serve others with their gifts and talents. He served as the founding lead pastor at Sanctuary Church in San Diego from 2021 to 2025, has loved being part of the ministry team at a variety of churches as a pastor for the past twenty years, and is excited to be part of building a community of faith that is a safe place of healing, restoration and healthy growth closer to God and others.
From Brendan:
The call God has on me for ministry is to shepherd followers of Jesus, disciple and help others worship Jesus, develop in others a focus on the transforming power of life in the body of Christ, model an effective approach to worship blending technology and teaching, creating a vibrant expression of the worship arts based on strong biblical preaching that’s life relevant, leading bold evangelism in the community, and bringing together people from all walks of life to worship Jesus Christ.
My personal mission statement is: To have a life worth imitating and a faith worth considering...
To live and lead a lifestyle of worship.
My purpose is to know Jesus better, and to help others grow closer to him.
The Apostle Paul once described himself as trying to be all things to all people so they could relate to what he was saying, and that’s what I've made an intentional effort to model in my life. Whether good or bad, I do embrace the wide range of experiences that have served to form my character development.
In no particular order, I am a shepherd pastor, teacher, musician, chef, navy brat, father, husband, Star Wars fan, Browncoat, Trekkie, recovering Catholic, adopted San Diegan, Coronado Islander, motorsport enthusiast, gamer, marksman, collector of oddities, coffee connoisseur, and appreciator of the finer things in life, such as not driving off cliffs (anymore).
As you read the TLDR below, just know that ADHD is my superpower. I also have Auditory Processing Disorder and Dyslexia, so if you are a fellow neurodivergent, I see you.
Education & Professional Experience
I completed my Master's of Divinity from Haggard Seminary at Azusa Pacific University, taking a measly 19 years to finish, while concurrently earning a Master's of Educational Technology. I probably took longer than any other seminary student ever, having started the program in fall 2001, just one week before the events of 9/11, and graduating in May 2020. And I definitely have completed more postgraduate units than anyone ever for a Master's degree, coming across the finish line with 140 units (for a 74 unit degree). With 66 units post master's, I'm well on my way toward my DMin, working on my doctoral dissertation exploring healthy leadership within the church.
I’ve been actively involved in ministry leadership for 30 years as a pastor (lead pastor, executive pastor, worship pastor, administrative pastor, outreach pastor, small groups pastor, men's ministry pastor, creative arts pastor, facilities director, IT & technologies director, office manager, community engagement director, social media & web manager, and minister to college-age, high school, and jr. high school groups).
In late 2021 we started a new church called Sanctuary San Diego, which gathered in the Blossom Valley/Lakeside area of East County. We met on a horse ranch for our weekend services, in addition to getting together in people's homes and engaging online. In late 2024 we hit the pause button on our active gatherings in order for me to experience my first sabbatical break from ministry work in 30+ years of serving, and as part of that reflective and restorative time on sabbatical, we decided to keep that pause button pushed on Sanctuary's live in person activities, responding to the Lord's call to join in with a healthy local church and serve in that community.
Susie and I have served a wide variety churches in different denominations, associations, and flavors of expression here in Southern California and the Midwest for over our three decades of ministry together.
For many years I have routinely performed Biblical counseling (marriage and family, grief, crisis and critical incident response, etc). My wife and I LOVE to help newlyweds navigate the waters of married life in home based Groups where couples can develop life long friendships and connect in a space that fosters safe sharing, transparency and invited accountability.
The entirety of my ministry career has been multivocational, or as the newly minted term "covocational" implies, complicated. Normally the term used is "bivocational" but I have always had to have multiple side hustles to support my family. I like to tell people I work for the Navy to finance my terrible ministry habit :)
Over the years I have been a chef at a Greek restaurant, a high school teacher and administrator, a music instructor, a magazine writer and book co-author, an automotive technician, an HVAC technician, a speaker/educator/trainer/coach for leadership development conferences and workshops, a radio DJ, a studio and touring musician, a content creator for websites, and a YouTuber, among other side hustles that I've delved into briefly. My current weekday job is serving as a supervisor for Work & Family Life and Exceptional Family Member Programs at Fleet and Family Support Center Naval Base Coronado, providing support to military service members and their families.
My articles published with Worship Leader Magazine and Worship Musician Magazine can be found on my media page here in the top menu. I enjoy teaching sessions at worship conferences, and helping develop and coordinate local Worship Leaders Networks, where I assist other worship leaders in developing their ministry teams. For four years I coordinated a local gathering of worship ministry teams in cooperation for multi-church nights of worship called Encounter, partnering with pastors from Canyon Springs Church, Horizon Valley Center, Mira Mesa Christian Fellowship, Horizon North County, and several others to bring this event to fruition 4-5 times a year. In 1997, with some longtime friends I co-founded the San Diego Worship Leaders Network, which currently has over 800 members engaged in supporting one another as we serve our local churches through worship and technical ministry.
Family
My family is not perfect and we do struggle through many life challenges together, like just about everyone we know. My wife Susie was diagnosed with leukemia in July 2020 and she has been fighting cancer ever since. We are grateful that she has a positive prognosis, and prayerfully encouraged that the medical treatments and much prayer are so far being very effective in beating back the cancer! We are extremely thankful for the tremendous support we've received from our church community and circles of friends in our geek & car communities, in providing prayer and meeting practical and financial needs as we've walked this road together.
In December 2024 my wife Susie and I celebrated 25 years of married life together, and we are thrilled to have two amazing teens we refer to as Hobbit #1 and Hobbit #2, as we have generally tried to keep their names off social media. Hobbit #1 is enjoying life as a college student here in the San Diego area, and Hobbit #2 is continuing the high school journey here in San Diego. We also have two dogs, two turtles and a gecko rounding out the family.
My wife has her Master’s degree in Special Education and taught kindergarten/first grade bilingual students with mild to moderate disabilities in the inner city, until our kids entered the picture. She was a stay at home mommy for 11 years, but as our kids have reached school age, she's been finding opportunities to serve in ministry and returned to the education field as a teacher helping special needs students. She enjoys scrap booking, antiques, reading, Trading Spaces, and is a closet Trekkie, Browncoat, & Tolkien fan. She was born in Costa Rica, grew up in San Diego, and is fluent in Spanish – and is teaching our children to speak Spanish. Susie helped lead the Mothers of Pre-Schoolers ministry at our church for several years, and was a core member of our Moms On A Mission group.
Passion & Calling
My main passion, anointing and calling in ministry is for Word centered worship that is passionately experiential and life transforming, the spiritual care and mentoring of Christ followers, and servant evangelism with a focus towards long-term community impact.
Susie and I believe that as a husband and wife we are both called to serve in ministry, and we have had the wonderful experience of serving together in several ministries through our years together. Susie and I started and led a Young Married ministry that has continued to grow and develop far beyond our five years of involvement. We also worked together for several years in community outreach, in our church’s servant evangelism kindness outreach ministry, which I later came to co-lead as assistant pastor. And of course, Susie was instrumental in helping launch Sanctuary as a new church in San Diego, helping with all the hospitality and fellowship aspects of our gatherings, and keeping me centered.
Music is a huge part of my life, and I spend a great deal of time listening and performing. I strive to always be developing my worship leading abilities and musical skills, and I add new songs to my repertoire constantly. I’m proficient on many different instruments, including electric and acoustic six string guitars, twelve string acoustic, four and five string bass, keyboard, violin, viola, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, oud, bouzouki, drums, djembe, cajon, conga, bongos, maracas, and I lead from vocals. I’d love to learn the electric cello, bagpipes and taiko drums. Currently I'm working on relearning the traditional Irish Penny Whistle and the Peruvian flute.
Personal Background
I grew up in a Navy family, so I basically lived everywhere; we moved 25 times in 21 years, but I consider San Diego to be my home town. We just completed what was lifetime move #41 for me, relocating from Alpine to Lakeside.
It should be known as well that I am the prince of Navy brats – my dad was a highly decorated two-star admiral & multiple war veteran, and I took great advantage of being his son to exercise my bratness on many military bases around the world. Unfortunately he was killed in the line of duty when his F-18 went down in May 1995. Dad was an amazing role model and I miss him dearly. As a long-term survivor, I participate with the organization TAPS: Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (www.taps.org) as a Care Group Facilitator, Peer Mentor, chaplain, and group leader for young adult children of military service members who have died in the line of duty, and I proudly serve other Gold Star families.
I'm a car guy and I love spending time on cars – restoring them, modifying them, repairing them, racing them, driving them, and yes, even just looking at them. I've got a YouTube channel focused mainly on DIY auto repairs for the average shade tree mechanic, and the SoCal Car Culture scene: Cliffjumper Cars
Over the years I've created hundreds of videos posted ranging from live song performances to DIY car repair tutorials, and as of 2025 I've had over 1 million views on my channel!! Feel free to look me up, subscribe and share some of my videos! Cliffjumper is callsign, bestowed upon me for my infamous experience driving off a 300 foot cliff in Malibu.
My garage is full of every random tool ever conceived of for auto maintenance, and some that were never meant to be used on a car. Sometimes I have to make my own tools to fix things that break on cars that are no longer supported by their manufacturers (for some reason I am drawn to “problem” cars, rare & hard to find parts for). I love being involved in the car scene, hanging out with different auto clubs and communities. I use that connection as an evangelistic opportunity to share the love of Jesus, with 1 Corinthians 10:31 as my inspiration: whatever I do, I do it for the glory of God.
Volunteerism & Charity Work
As alluded to previously, I am also a huge sci-fi geek, and helped found the San Diego Star Wars Society in 2002, serving on its leadership team now for 20+ years, supporting local charities, our military families, and schools through participation in events and fundraising. I'm also a 20+ year veteran member of the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, and Droid Builders, participating as a cosplayer and builder, and I've recently joined up with the Sci-Fi Coalition to help serve the community through volunteerism.
For 40 years, I served as a volunteer with Comic-Con International. In 1985 I joined as a daily volunteer, adopted into our special nerd family by my longtime, friend Alan Campbell, who encouraged me to lie about my age to join the volunteer team with him on security. Over the years I got to help out as a volunteer in Line Control, Gaming, Registration, Disabled Services, and in 2002 - yes, that seems to have been a significant year for me in nerd life - my little brother convinced me to join the organization as a voting Committee member, and I began serving as a department staff member in Programming. That same year I began creating and hosting panels at the convention as an Industry Professional, and I began having a booth as an Exhibitor.
15 years later, I retired from the Programming department as a senior staff member after being recruited by my dear friend Clydene Nee to help her as her Department Assistant in Artist Alley, facilitating the team in our How To Room, promoting educational programming and content designed to equip and empower creative people, recruiting new talent to the department, training and empowering leaders, and building connections with artists and creatives to provide panels for our programming room. In February 2025 I officially retired from volunteering with Comic-Con, after 40 years of serving, though I do plan to continue being an active contributor as an Exhibitor and Industry Professional for as long as they'll have me.
I'm also a founding member of Geeks4Christ and enjoy collaboration with Geeky Guys & Gals for God, and the Christian Comics Arts Society, with whom we've partnered to host a worship chapel and outreach events at Comic-Con for about 15 years.
I enjoy most cheesy sci-fi and fantasy (Firefly, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, the Matrix, etc). I do have fun playing Halo & Forza Motorsports on Xbox with my friends when I get the chance, and I spend time keeping up with friends online through social networking, mostly Facebook and Instagram these days. I am also a proud child of the 80’s and love memorabilia and music from the best – check that – the most *radical* decade ever. Hitting up events like Radwood that celebrate this period in time are one of my favorite things to do! And I play in a cover band that does a lot of 80s hits too.
Somewhere in all this I’ve been involved in the film/TV/media industry. My geeky friends & family who work in this medium are probably somewhat to blame, but I’m drawn to the production aspects of film making such as costume & prop making, musical scoring, and special effects and cinematography. I’ve had the pleasure of appearing on screen on a couple of TV shows and movies as an actor, so as weird as it sounds, I’ve been a member of SAG and AFTRA and I have an IMDB page online. A few years ago I had the opportunity to appear as a Stormtrooper on the Deal or No Deal Star Wars Special, and recently I was in a Super Bowl commercial for the NFL. Just one of those weird eclectic experiences I've been blessed to have.
Squirrel
Yes, I have ADHD. And Dyslexia, and Audio Processing Disorder. They've been challenges I've overcome thanks to the self discipline taught me by my parents, and as a neurodivergent, I find that my special attributes make it possible for me to connect with others that are not neurotypical, and be an encourager for them. ADHD is my superpower. Auditory Processing Disorder is my kryptonite. Dyslexia is just an annoyance.
As far as employment goes… I've most often been what you could consider multi-vocational, and what those in ministry would call a tent maker. I’ve been the senior chef of a Greek restaurant; started working there in 1995 and was serving there once again until the end of 2017 – it was a true blessing to have a place that I can go back to when everything else falls through! I’ve also been a high school teacher (government, economics, guitar, English, religious studies, Spanish) musician, and pastor (as mentioned earlier). After being laid off from teaching in 2008 in the great recession, I substituted for a couple of years until joining the staff at CBC.
From September 2010 until January 2015, I was blessed to be on staff at San Diego Community Bible Church. After an 8 month search process, the Lord led us to Indiana where I joined the staff at SSBC from September 2015 until September 2017, and then He brought us back to San Diego once more, to serve at Quest Church from September 2017 until October 2021. I was invited to rejoin the ministry team at Community Bible Church in December 2021 as an interim pastor while we were concurrently launching Sanctuary Church, and in February 2022 I also began a new adventure as in a completely different field, as an HVAC technician with Air Temperature Specialists. In November 2022 I pivoted from HVAC work to being a Work & Family Life Consultant with Navy Fleet and Family Services as my weekday job, and in October 2023 became supervisor for WFL and EFMP programs at Naval Base Coronado.
Yes, it was a busy season, working a full time weekday job while pastoring at two churches, while being a husband to a wife fighting cancer, and dad to two teens! In an effort to simplify, I prayerfully hit the pause button on ministry service for a season of sabbatical, starting in October 2024, anticipating a return to ministry sometime in 2025.
In the midst of all of this, I’m an avid writer. As mentioned, I have articles regularly published by Worship Leader Magazine and Worship Musician Magazine, authored chapters for a book called "Superhero Grief: The Transformative Power of Loss" that was published in summer 2020 and is now being used as a textbook for many universities, and just finished my contributions for the follow up, Superhero Grief Volume 2, which deals with non-death related loss. My chapter covers Complex Spiritual Grief, dealing with the issues of loss of spiritual community, loss of faith, loss of trust in spiritual authorities, spiritual abuse and neglect.
I have several books of my own in process which I haven’t quite taken to the submission stage yet, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll jump into the book publishing fray at some point soon, rather than keep this stuff all to myself. (Thanks to my friend Margaret Feinberg for the inspiration and encouragement!!!)
And... I recently released my first few singles on iTunes, to be followed shortly after by a six song EP and a full length 13 track album. Unless my finish my Christmas album first. Because... squirrel.
All things considered, this overview is not exactly brief, but it’s a pretty good snapshot of this particularly geeky pastor whose site you’re reading. If it strikes your fancy, please shoot me an email, follow me on Instagram or Threads, message me on Facebook, text me, tweet me, or you could get all crazy and call me on the phone. But really, who still does that now? ;)
