I'm Rob. I work here.

I actually used to say that every time I stood up to preach at a massive church where I was a teaching pastor. Literally every time I started a sermon for my first two years of working at that church, I started with, "Hi, I'm Rob. I work here." Someone eventually told me that it was unnecessary for me to say that. Most people knew my name was Rob, and they all knew that I worked there.

I guess I was trying to give people a general sense of comfort with me. I wanted people to feel like they knew me at least well enough to listen to me talk for thirty minutes or so. I couldn't give everybody my life story or a list of my credentials or whatever I had done in my life before that point. So I simply settled for, "I'm Rob. I work here."

If I'd had more time--and if they had been interested--I would have told the people in the room that I love conversations.

Conversations about God.

Conversations about humanity.

Conversations about consciousness and the meaning of life.

Conversations about music and movies.

So that's what I'm doing here; that's what this website is for--starting and hosting conversations.

Where do these conversations take place?

They take place at Collective Church, where I'm the pastor. My wife and I--along with some good friends--started the church in February 2014. Collective Church is in Roanoke, Texas. You can visit the church on any Sunday morning, or you can join the conversation through our weekly podcast.

The conversations also take place in my writing--on my blog, in my ebook (Lost in the Flood: Reflections on the Biblical Story of Noah) , and sometimes in writing that I do for other people.

They also take place in podcasts. These days, I'm mostly podcasting with my friend J.B. Clark on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet. 

Before the church, the blog, and the podcasts, I received my Master's Degree from Truett Seminary at Baylor University.

I currently live in Fort Worth, Texas with my wife Caroline and our three kids.

By the way, Caroline is an amazing--and award-nominated--birth photographer. If you're having a baby, you should hire her.

So that's me. Thanks for reading. And if you didn't care to know all of that, just know that my name is Rob, and I work here.