Gene accepted Christ as his Savior as a young boy. Both his father and maternal grandfather were gospel ministers. They each had a profound influence on his world view, values, and career path.

The greatest influence, however, has been the God who knew and loved him before he knew himself.

Educated at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri and Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, Gene began his full-time ministry pursuits in 1980. He served as a youth minister in Fort Worth, Texas. From there, he moved to California, where, in 1985, he would accept the call to his first pastorate.

Following the sudden and untimely death of his father in 1991, Gene and his family returned to Texas to be near his widowed mother. That year, he became pastor of the Victory Baptist Church in Paris, Texas.

After six years of what seemed to be successful ministry in Paris, Gene found himself, for the first time in his adult life, out of the ministry. He says of that experience, "The thing about sin is that it is an equal opportunity destroyer. I had been unfaithful to God in the all-important area of personal finances. That failure lead me to some desperate - and very poor - decisions."

For the next ten years, Gene would labor in the secular world, working as a middle school teacher and then an insurance adjuster. He tried to forget his calling, to leave it all behind.

"Dr. Earl Oldham - a now-deceased, wonderful pastor and bible college president, and a mentor of mine - once reminded me that the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance," says Gene. "It took me a few years to gain full appreciation of that truth."

Gene has returned to ministry, the place God has designed for him and designed him for, as an itinerant gospel preacher and teacher. He brings the brokenness one would expect of a man who has been where he has been and seen the things he has seen. He believes the years spent on the outside looking in were not wasted.

"Life is a journey," he reminds us. "Sometimes, we take unexpected detours. When those detours are the result of our own failures, they can be even more painful and poignant than if they were simply the product of 'chance.'"

Gene has been married to his beautiful wife, Donya, since 1980. They have three wonderful adult daughters: Ashley, Holly, and Lacey. They are now called Mimi and DooDah by a rambunctious little boy named Ty, the son of Ashley and her husband, Andrew Woolgar.

Holly, their middle daughter, is disabled. She is a minister in her own right, sharing her struggles and triumphs with others whose lives have been fraught with challenge.

As the father of a disabled daughter and as a minister who has been through the fiery trials of failure and loss, Gene brings a unique viewpoint and an unsurpassed passion to the ministry to which God has called him.