It’s pronounced like bear – “Bear-nt” – one syllable. I am husband to Pastor Kate and father to five children. As a pastor, what keeps me going is to see how faith and compassion move in peoples’ lives, often in ways they don’t expect.
I grew up in Eastern Washington (Pasco). My family was pretty active in our small Lutheran church. I even got to lead some of the chanting in worship. I began to experience a real call to ministry during my last year of college. At St Olaf College in Minnesota, I took a class called “Vocational Ethics.” The professor said, “with four years of college, it makes sense to take one class on what to do with the rest of your life.” I shared with that class a letter: people from my home town asking me to consider ministry. The idea seemed strange but interesting. I hadn’t felt drawn to church at all during my college years.
After graduation I set out on an adventure: the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, where I would live in intentional community and work at a drop-in center for the homeless and preach my first sermons. I studied at ecumenical Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. After an internship back in Grays Harbor, Washington I finished my seminary studies at PLTS in Berkeley, where I met Katherine. My first call as a pastor was as an associate pastor at St Marks Lutheran Church by the Narrows in Tacoma, WA. Afterwards, I served at St Luke Lutheran Church in Woodland Hills, CA.
I’m a curious person with many interests: elaborate cooking projects like pureeing chiles for mole’, reading lit like Moby Dick, regular walks in wilderness as well as random urban neighborhoods, and music: listening (early music to 60s jazz to …) I play mandolin in local jams such as St Stephens on Castro (Wednesday night old time jam) and even a jam I host occasionally at church.
