🤓 March 2026 - Officially a Doctoral Student! 📚

It has been a season filled with transitions. Closing an Airbnb, closing a church network, having a baby, Kaity stepping away from her job, and now finally a much needed validation for my next season—a fully funded PhD fellowship in Practical Theology.

For those that have known me a long time, this opportunity is much more than professional development or earning a degree. A key juncture in my own story happened in 2012, when I dropped out of a PhD fellowship in Biomedical Engineering. That was a beautiful opportunity, but my motivations and sense of identity were woefully distorted. That was also a season of clarifying my sense of calling to teach (or as I wrote in my journal in 2012 "to be stepstool for others to help them reach higher"). After many years of experimenting and exploring I am returning to those journals and aiming to devote my time solely to ministry and teaching. This fellowship opportunity is just a part of that longterm effort to help people and churches.

The program I will be starting is at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. I was introduced to the opportunity by my friend Kurty Darling who was just wrapping up there in 2025 after defending her dissertation. She recommended and connected me to Dr. Andrew (Andy) Root. What first drew me to Andy was his recent series titled Ministry in a Secular Age where he unpacks the broader cultural patterns that have created the malaise we all live in. As a missionary and pastor the last fifteen years it is hard to overstate the level of deep resonance I felt working through this series. Andy's work exemplifies the type of support, teaching, and writing I hope to be able to provide for others engaged in the practice of missions and pastoral ministry. If you are curious about my current PhD research proposal here is the brief essay that helped secure my fellowship seat. I have already begun preliminary reading and dialogues with Andy.

Beyond school I am continuing to clarify and gain opportunities for ministry work with 24-7 Prayer Global Leadership team, the Order of the Common Life, YWAM, and other relational networks. This primarily looks like facilitating leadership cohorts, itinerant teaching-preaching, pastoral care for leaders, and church plant coaching. Kaity and I have also been thrilled to continue pastoring and leading our House Church, which will celebrate 10 years this Fall.

For those who are curious you can also find an updated budget and job description for my ministry work at the bottom of the stepstool.xyz homepage. I am still fundraising this Spring and would appreciate if you keep our family in your prayers as we seek to close budget gaps for 2026.

Grateful for the friendship, support, and to have you in our lives!

☺️ Blessings

Dave

PS. I will post broader updates here under the Updates tab moving forward. If you want to track with some of my reflections and learning you can find my Substack and subscribe to get those posts as well!