I am an aspiring Hebrew Bible scholar and linguist interested in incorporating (a) Discourse Analysis, (b) Discourse Representation Theory (DRT), (c) Text Linguistics, (d) Contrastive (or Comparative) Rhetoric, and (e) Disciplinary Literacy theories, methods, and analyses as well as (f) Second Language Acquisition Andragogy into the traditional methods and approaches of Biblical Exegesis. I am also interested in conceptualizing and establishing a new sub-field called the "History, Philosophy and Sociology of Biblical Interpretation" that is model on the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of the Sciences and Social Sciences.

Ministerially, I would also like to work in a congregation to implement a discipleship training program that is holistic, Spirit-led, pedagogically and andragogically informed, and developmentally scaffolded. It would use second language acquisition methods and approaches along with those from disciplinary, critical, and multicultural literacies. Members would learn to read the Bible as a translation of ancient and foreign literature and as a religious and devotional text. To cultivate the latter, discipleship training would employ a structural pathway of courses using various methods and resources to facilitate the practice of the spiritual disciplines among all members so that they can have a deep, healthy, mature, engaging, integrative and all-encompassing relationship with God and with others (e.g., Foster's Celebration of the Disciplines; Willard's Hearing God and The Spirit of the Disciplines; Blackaby, Blackaby, and King's Experiencing God; Hawkins and Parkinson's Reveal, Follow Me, and Move; Cloud and Townsend's How People Grow, DeMoss Wolgemuth and Grissom's Seeking Him; Scazzero's Emotionally Healthy Spirituality; and Graham Lotz, King, and Blackaby's Fresh Encounters).

All members should be taught how to employ and wed both the critical and devotional approaches for edifying, encouraging, mentoring, and discipling others. The goal and mission are to help every Christian become like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) so that they can have their own road to Emmaus experience (Luke 24:13-35) and become disciple-makers themselves (Matthew 28:19-20). I believe that those who have the deepest relationship with and who have a deep love for God are the most effective disciple-makers for God, lovers of God's people, and faithful and diligent interpreters of God's Word.

Given the dual nature of my calling, I am open to bi-vocational ministries whether (a) in the academic arena as a full-time professor, chaplain, or campus minister and as a volunteer or part-time Sunday School teacher, Bible teacher, or Adult Education pastor with a local congregation or (b) as a full-time pastor-scholar, pastor-theologian, pastor-apologists (like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Stott, John Piper, Tony Evans, Christopher W. Brooks, and Wayne Gordon among others) and a part-time adjunct professor at a local seminary or college.

God knows the future and the plans that God has for me. My responsibility is to faithfully prepare myself for this two-fold calling, to prayerfully and patiently wait for God to reveal the next steps of my journey, and to walk diligently and responsibly in God's grace when discernment is given. God's will, calling, and grace will determine God's future for me.