This shrewd and joyful book will help believers-at any stage in their spiritual journeys-encounter the real power of grace afresh.
Bill is the son of a hard working, middle class Italian/Hillbilly family (he says that lovingly) and the product of a Chicago public school education (he says that proudly). His upbringing in a small, fundamentalist church led him to an early decision to devote his life to Jesus. It wasn't until young adulthood that he began to appreciate how much Jesus was devoted to him. Surrounded by the high energy and vivid personalities of an urban jungle, Bill received a street-level education on human nature. His early love of reading, his hunger for the Bible and theology, and his early struggles with legalism and self-worth form the foundation for Bill's writing. He also has a deep love of Chicago sports teams and Chicago pizza, but that's not the point right now.
Bill entered full-time ministry at age 20 as a children's and youth pastor. He served for eight years before planting a church in Chicago and becoming its senior pastor. During that sixteen-year ministry, Bill finished his seminary degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, urban ministry training at S.C.U.P.E., and his doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary. He met and married his wife, Margi, and started his family... two kids, two dogs, one hamster, and one fish that survived.
After a two-year stint as a suburban teaching pastor, Bill and his family headed to the snow-capped mountains and pristine lakes of northern California, where Bill serves as the senior pastor of a rapidly growing Church. Bill and his church are part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination.
Bill has established a reputation for speaking to the mind in ways that touch the heart. He enjoys delivering God's Word with both theological depth and real-life meaning. He aims to encourage instead of tear down. He strives to free others from guilt, shame, and legalism, and help them discover life and love through God's amazing grace.
Bill's life-verse (yes, he actually has one) is:
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.
(Jeremiah 9:23, 24, NKJV).
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