I was raised in a strong Christian home and there was never a time in which I didn’t love and follow Jesus – it just varied in degrees of knowledge and devotion. The churches of my childhood and youth tended towards fundamentalism but as I read diverse Christian authors and was exposed to other views in college, my love for God and understanding of Scripture was strengthened while my dogmatism and judgmentalism softened.

I attended Drexel University in Philadelphia and received my B.S. in electrical engineering in 1973. While there I was involved in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Authors such as C. S. Lewis, J. I. Packer, John Stott and A. W. Tozer helped further shape my thinking.

During my college years I met Cathy Gutsche in Annapolis, Maryland, while I was doing my college “co-op” cycle there. She was attending Gordon College. We delightfully married in 1974 and continue to enjoy our friendship, co-ministry and love!. After working several years in the engineering field, I helped start a ministry-oriented, nonprofit Christian bookstore in Princeton, NJ – the Lamplighter Bookstore. What a joy it was to guide people to helpful books and through dialog encourage them. I served as manager/minister there for 8 years.

It was during this time that I helped start an Evangelical Free Church in the area and in 1983 I left the bookstore ministry to pastor half-time in the church. Over the next fourteen years I supplemented my pastoring by being a building superintendent/handyman in the Princeton area and then starting my own home repair business.These were rich times of stretching and growing with good friends.

In 1997 I began to explore full-time pastoral ministry and discovered the Brethren in Christ Church, which amazingly fit the theological and spiritual values that I had come to embrace – in particular a strong affirmation for biblical community, practical holiness of heart, mind and deed, devotional and heartfelt worship, biblical peace-making, an atmosphere that affirmed theological inquiry, and the expectation that Jesus must be our Lord, not just our Savior. (You can learn more at www.bic-church.org.) I was received as a fulltime senior pastor at Cumberland Valley Church in Dillsburg, PA, just south of Harrisburg, where I served until 2015. Cathy and I moved to Annapolis, MD after my retirement to be closer to Cathy’s family, where we have found joy in continuing to serve God through our gifts and passions.

My primary theological training has come from the authors of many great books, and through asking questions and engaging in stimulating discussions with people who like to explore the Bible, faith in Jesus, and life in today’s context. Impacting authors include Philip Yancey, John Piper, Brian McLaren, Dallas Willard, Scot McKnight, Greg Boyd, Pete Enns and Larry Crabb.

By way of family connections, my parents are Dick and Esther Miller, and my siblings are Deb (Kay), Doug, and Beth (Mellinger). I have three married children: Katie (and Eric) Hansen, Brian (and Nicole) Miller, and Jeff (and Shannon) Miller. And from them we have 8 special grandchildren!

My wife, Cathy, is in the business of helping people organize their photos and putting them into scrapbooks (both traditional and digital).and is a distributor for a wellness company called Youngevity.

For fun, I enjoy coaching youth lacrosse, reading, gardening and handyman projects. I also think a lot about how the church can realistically and passionately pursue the glory of God together. To that end I wrote “You & God – An Invitation to Radical Living”, published in 2006. It’s about living for the glory of God with joy in all areas of life, in particular through the transformation of the heart and mind. My goal was to make these concepts immensely practical and clear. The reader can judge whether I was successful or not!

If you want to contact me, email me at fredmiller4life@gmail.com.

Fred Miller, 2016