Why We Do What We Do

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” — Philippians 1:21 (KJV)

People often ask what led to CrossLife Ministries and why the message of Christ as our Life has become the central focus of everything we do.

The answer is simple.

This message was not born merely through academic study, ministry training, or years of experience.

It was forged through life itself.

For nearly five decades, God has allowed me to serve through pastoral ministry, leadership training, counseling, missions, writing, and teaching. Along the way, He also allowed my wife Joy and me to experience many of the same struggles, disappointments, questions, and challenges faced by the people we now serve.

Early in our marriage, we experienced the heartbreaking loss of our first child. Later came seasons of financial uncertainty, ministry setbacks, difficult decisions, health challenges, parenting responsibilities, and countless situations that stretched our faith beyond our own understanding and strength.

Like many people who seek counseling today, there were times when we simply did not know what to do.

Yet through every season, God was teaching us a lesson that would eventually become the foundation of this ministry:

Life was never meant to be lived independently from Christ.

Again and again, we discovered that Jesus Christ was not merely our example, our helper, or our destination.

He was our very Life.

The more we learned to depend upon Him, the more we discovered the truth of His sufficiency.

Over time, these lessons began shaping every aspect of ministry.

What started through pastoral ministry expanded into leadership training, missions, discipleship, and eventually Christian counseling.

For more than thirty years, God allowed me to sit with individuals, couples, pastors, missionaries, and families facing some of life’s most difficult circumstances.

I listened to stories of broken relationships, addictions, fears, grief, shame, rejection, anxiety, depression, spiritual confusion, and personal struggles.

While every situation was unique, one common thread continually emerged.

People were searching for life in places where life could never ultimately be found.

Many had been taught how to behave as Christians.

Few had been taught how to live from Christ.

That realization became one of the defining convictions behind CrossLife Ministries.

Our goal has never been simply to help people manage problems.

Our desire has always been to help people discover the One who is their Life.

In 2000, God led me to CrossLife Ministries.

Since then, the ministry has expanded through counseling, leadership training, international missions, writing, teaching, and digital outreach.

Over the years, God opened doors to serve in twelve nations, train more than 1,500 pastors and Christian leaders, and minister alongside churches, missionaries, schools, orphanages, and indigenous ministries around the world.

Each opportunity reinforced the same truth:

People everywhere are searching for the life that can only be found in Christ.

In 2018, God opened another unexpected door through the Life As God Intended YouTube ministry.

What began as a simple step of faith gradually developed into a worldwide teaching ministry reaching people across multiple nations through videos, audiobooks, daily devotionals, counseling resources, and discipleship materials.

For many people, these resources became an extension of the counseling office—bringing biblical encouragement and practical discipleship into homes around the world.

Yet even that ministry was preparing the way for something still to come.

After decades of ministry, counseling, teaching, writing, and discipleship, one project gradually began to emerge above all others.

In July of 2025, that work culminated in the publication of the three-volume discipleship counseling workbook series:

Free to Be “In Christ”

Free to Relate “In Christ”

Free to Live “In Christ”

Together, these three volumes contain 86 chapters and approximately 190,000 words of biblical counseling, discipleship, practical application, and encouragement centered on one foundational truth:

Christ Himself is our Life.

More than any other writing project I have completed, these books represent the accumulated fruit of nearly five decades of ministry and more than thirty years of counseling experience.

Every lesson learned.

Every counseling session.

Every sermon preached.

Every struggle endured.

Every ministry opportunity.

And every testimony of God’s faithfulness helped shape the pages of those books.

In many ways, this series has become the capstone of the work Christ has done through me.

Not because of the books themselves, but because they represent a lifetime of learning what it means to live from Christ rather than attempting to live for Him through human effort.

Today, the principles contained within these volumes continue to guide our counseling, teaching, writing, digital outreach, and discipleship resources, serving as a foundation for ongoing ministry and future publications.

Today, CrossLife Ministries serves individuals, couples, pastors, missionaries, ministry leaders, and believers from many different backgrounds who desire to understand their identity in Christ and learn how to experience His sufficiency in everyday life.

Whether someone is facing personal struggles, relational challenges, spiritual questions, ministry pressures, or simply a desire to grow in their relationship with Christ, our passion remains the same: helping people discover that the Christian life was never meant to be lived apart from Him.

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” — Colossians 1:27 (KJV)

While methods have changed over the years, the message has remained the same.

We believe that Christ is not merely part of the Christian life.

He is the Christian life.

Our mission is simple:

To help people understand their identity in Christ and learn how to live as God intended—deriving life from Him by faith.

Everything we do flows from that conviction.

And everything we hope to accomplish points people back to the One who has faithfully sustained us through every chapter of the journey.

Jesus Christ.

Our Life.

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