I have had the privilege to work – both full-time and avocationally – in several fields. You will find references here to my work as an Army Interrogator (Airborne), a police academy instructor, an intelligence consultant, a crime prevention specialist, an investigator, a game journalist and commentator, a writer and editor, a pastor, a social justice advocate, a professor, and as a Ph.D. candidate. Each of these jobs has drawn on the same basic skills of thinking quickly and critically, writing clearly, and speaking effectively; but exercising those skills in different roles has allowed me to apply them to a wider range of challenges.
I am a member of the Christian clergy, but I am not currently serving a church (although I do supply work in the Atlanta area as-needed). I think, as church attendance continues to decline and as fundamentalism continues to render Christianity increasingly irrelevant in the minds of educated Westerners, more and more clergy with other marketable skills will work bi-vocationally. In many ways this is a good thing because it will encourage us to find ways to serve as priests and pastors to our neighbors in every setting, not just from 11 to noon on Sunday.
So, although being a clergyman is definitely a large part of my identity, it is not my sole vocation. Drawing on my intelligence training in the Army, and over two decades as a law enforcement instructor, I work as a consultant and trainer focusing specifically on threat assessment, counter-terrorism, firearms, human intelligence collection techniques, crime prevention, and qualitative data/crime analysis.
In addition, I teach as an adjunct professor for Mercer University, and I write about computer games as well as high fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction novels. I got started writing in those fields working as a journalist while I was in seminary, and I never stopped. Spending my evenings writing about fantasy worlds where the good guys always win is a nice change of pace from my day job.
If you’re really curious, you can read my results from various personality tests here.