About me

I was born in Marsberg, Germany, on November 15, 1967. After graduation from High School and service in the German armed forces, I enrolled in Japanese Studies and Media Science at Philipps University in Marburg in 1988. From 1991-92 I studied at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, and I graduated with a M.A. in Japanese Studies in 1994. The same year, I accepted a position to work for the Japanese government in Okinawa prefecture and worked on the development of the German Culture Village on Miyako Island.

In 1994, I walked through the sugar cane fields of Ueno Village when I heard a voice say, “Wolfgang, I want you to minister.” A native German on a small, rural Japanese island, I was surprised to hear my name in English. More significantly, I did not understand the word, "minister." I was not sure what to think of the event, since I saw nobody around, but decided to go home and look up the word in a dictionary. The two options given related either to a government institution or to religious service. I learned that German does not possess an equivalent to the term, and the only sense I could make of the request or command was that I had been asked to become a priest.

I had been raised Roman Catholic and felt unprepared to comprehend the experience. It seemed clear that either I had imagined the event or I had indeed had a spiritual experience. In search for answers, I decided to turn to Christians in Okinawa, and found in a Pentecostal military servicemen center direction to process what had happened. I learned to speak of the experience in a different way.

Apparently, God had decided to talk to me (either that or I had gone crazy; so I preferred the Pentecostal explanation.). I decided to talk back to God and informed him that I was not ready to become a priest. In a sense, to me at least, this ended the episode. But God decided to speak to me again. Two weeks later, on a Saturday afternoon, I heard the voice again, saying just the same six words: "Wolfgang I want you to minister.”

Asking for direction from the Pentecostals, I heard of the story of Gideon and the fleece. I did not have a fleece, but the Pentecostals told me that a bath towel would do just fine. And so I decided to take a new step. I took a towel, went outside, and asked God to respond to me in a more factual manner. If God wanted me to go minister, it had to be a clear command. I placed the towel outdoors and told God to burn the towel, to write on it, or to make it wet. Anything, really, to make me see that I was not imagining things. As I made my way back to my room, I closed the door expecting to check on the towel the next day, when God spoke as clear as day that he was not going to do anything to that towel since doing so would “convince” me of something I needed to do on my own free will. God had never forced me to do anything in my life and was not going to do so now. “You know what I have asked you to do,” God concluded. And that, I did.

Inspired by my unusual experience, I decided to quit my job and change course. I enrolled in a seminary in the United States associated with the Pentecostal group that had helped me process my experience and obtained a Master of Divinity. That seemed a logical decision since God for some reason had decided to speak to me in English (even though I did not understand everything), and since the Pentecostal way had opened new perspectives. Surprsingly, to me at least, I learned that "ministry" can mean more than priesthood.

I graduated from the Church of God Theological Seminary in 1999 and enrolled in a Ph.D. in systematic theology and ethics at Marquette University. After obtaining my doctorate in 2003, I took on a two-year position at Boston College. In 2005, I was offered a teaching position at the School of Divinity at Regent University.

I met my wife, Michelle, during this journey of faith. We both attended Seminary together and married on June 9, 1996, in Cleveland, TN. We now live in Virginia Beach and have a son, Noah Alexander, who is busy growing up. Well, in a sense, so am I.