Colin is a Canadian, born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He trusted Christ at the age of nineteen in 1978 and married Colleen two years later.
He and Colleen attended Bible college in Denver, Colorado, from 1982-1985. During his Bible college years, several DTS-trained professors encouraged him to continue his training at their alma mater. In 1985, Colin moved even farther south to study at Dallas Theological Seminary, earning his MABS and MACE in 1988 and his DMCE in 2008.
Since then, Colin has served in various ministry roles, including pastoring, church planting, and counseling, for almost 40 years in Canada and the U.S. He and his wife reside in Edmonton, Alberta. He considers his four adult children his dearest friends, loves the people they married, and is hopelessly taken with his two grandchildren.
Currently, Colin works for DTS as a member of the Alumni Relations Team. He reaches out to DTS alumni across Canada and the northern United States, including Alaska. Colin loves connecting, encouraging, and coaching alumni at their various life and ministry career stages. The goal of the Alumni Relations Team is to convey Dallas Seminary’s continued prayer and support of its graduates. Many who value the school’s commitment to an ongoing relationship sincerely appreciate this connection.
When Colin isn’t serving alumni, he is busy with his ministry—Grace For Life Ministries (graceforlifeministries.com). GFLM is a speaking, teaching, counseling, and writing ministry. Colin offers seminars on various topics, works with pastors and churches needing refreshment and healing, and helps churches prepare for incoming pastors. Colin’s first book will be published this fall, focusing on conflict prevention in the church and ministry.
Under the umbrella of GFLM is Grace Counselling. This grace-based Christian counseling ministry offers pastoral care to individuals, marriages, families, teams, churches, and those in the ministry. He meets with people from both Canada and the U.S. online and in person.
For Colin, the extraordinary grace of God serves as the foundation for what he teaches and the basis for how he loves. He explains, “That God would lovingly stoop down from heaven to lift us out of our spiritual poverty through his son, Jesus will never cease to amaze me. God’s grace is not just a doctrine; it’s a way of life and the key to transformational ministry. Truth without love is cold and legal; love without truth is warm but permissive. Grace is the balance. When biblical truth and God’s love dwell together, there is grace, freedom, and life.”
Colin credits his education at DTS for ensuring his ministry is grace-based and relational rather than performance-based and transactional. Grace permeates everything about his pastoral and counseling ministries. He boasts in the Lord, saying, “As a minister of grace, by message and method, I have witnessed the power of the gospel do its saving work, and the Spirit do his transforming work in the lives of thousands of people over the years. Never once a boring story, uneventful salvation, or modest change, but always a true work of God calling for a celebration through praise and worship.”
When Colin and Colleen were students at DTS, they had a very active music ministry. Each summer, they would set out on a cross-Canada tour, leading worship, and preaching at as many churches and camps as possible to earn the money needed to return to DTS the following year. Colin says the highlight of their ministry at DTS was performing alongside a young professor named Mark Bailey. Dr. Bailey performed Christian illusion gospel ministry, and Colin and Colleen led in worship. This started conversations that developed into a friendship with Mark that they cherish to this day.
God changed Colin and Colleen’s lives during their time at DTS through the professors, the classes, the truth, and the training that prepared them for ministry. In concert with these, nothing influenced them more than the friendships they established during their time at DTS. Many of those friendships are still active today. (By the way, Colin wanted to send a shout-out to the Round Heads—whatever that means.)
When asked about DTS’s most significant contribution in preparing him to teach truth and love well, Colin responded: “Dallas Seminary gave me the tools to respectfully worship God, accurately study the Word, preach it truthfully, present it creatively, and use it effectively. As for love, the modelling and mentoring I received from the faculty and leadership of DTS influenced me then and is a legacy that remains in my life today.”