Born in 1946, Steve is the son and grandson of evangelical church pastors.  He has been actively involved in church his entire life.  He grew up in Illinois.  While in his teens, Steve’s father accepted the call to pastor a church in Rockford.  In retrospect, Steve believes that he was truly converted while a high school student in Rockford.  At that time he decided to pursue a Christian education in preparation for the pastorate.

While in college Steve married his high school sweetheart, Bonnie, in 1967.  Upon graduation from what is now Cincinnati Christian University, Steve pastored a church in Ohio.  After a few years he began to question his call to the ministry.  In 1972 Steve and Bonnie returned to Rockford.  Over the next 25 years Steve became an officer in his church and an owner of a distribution company.  He has also served on a number of business, civic and church related boards.

 In the late 1980’s Steve and Bonnie were introduced to the Doctrines of Grace by friends at church.  Bonnie “saw the light” very quickly.  But, as Steve began reading and studying Reformed Theology, the Holy Spirit worked on his mind and heart very slowly.   By the mid 1990’s Steve was thoroughly reformed and determined that they must move to a doctrinally sound church.

In 1997 they began attending Grace Reformed Baptist Church while their only child, Tony, was a freshman in college.  By God’s grace, over the next few years, Tony became reformed and is now married and pursuing a life of Christian ministry.

The next five years of reading was preparatory.  Steve spent countless hours discussing theology with Dale Smith.  In 2003 Steve became the 2nd lay pastor of the church and, overall, the 4th member of the Eldership.  The Lord has blessed Steve's business with very capable managers.  The result is that the business requires very little of his attention.  Steve is able to focus a great deal of his time on the ministry of the church.