About Tony

Christian, Husband, Father, Biblical Counselor

Tony brings decades of diverse life experiences and a knowledge of God’s Word to the much-needed work of couples counseling.  He also dedicates part of his time to one-on-one counseling for men, focusing on theology, ethics, vocational calling, and general life skills. 

Having walked with God for about 30 years, Tony works to equip people for the soul-fulfilling work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12).  Notwithstanding today’s information age, many people lack access to wisdom forged from faithfulness, hard trials, and rigorous study.  Tony’s mission is to help his neighbor (i.e., all people) flourish in every dimension of life—spiritual, physical, mental, social, economic, professional—through compassionate guidance that is grounded in the authority of God’s Word.

Tony was born in 1975 in central Arkansas.  Until nine years of age, when his parents divorced, two half-brothers lived with him.  He then lived alone with his father until the age of 13 years, when his father committed suicide.  His mother and step-father, with whom he lived until the age of 18 years, were alcoholics.  Not surprisingly, at the age of 17 years, Tony narrowly escaped a lengthy prison sentence from a county judge after earning eight juvenile felonies and three misdemeanors.  God used the associated penalties to begin to get his attention.

Through an academic scholarship, Tony earned a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arkansas at the age of 22 years.  Ten years later he graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a master of divinity degree.  Through employers, other colleges, and pastors, Tony has also studied Attic/Classical Greek, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, heat treatment of steel, metallurgy, finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, business finance, and business leadership.  Over a 24‑year engineering career, he strengthened his analysis, problem-solving, and people skills.  Since 1995, Tony has served in various Christian ministries as a teacher, evangelist, and missionary.  His spiritual autobiography through 2003 is available here.  He has lived in or visited 13 countries and 24 states of the U.S.A. 

Tony married his best friend and ministry partner, Angela, in 2006.  They now live on a ten‑acre homestead in southwest Missouri with their three children, chickens, jungle fowl, pigs, and cats.  A milk cow and 30-40 meat goats are in the works.  Tony is an avid homesteader and fix-it enthusiast who enjoys discipling his children and wife; teaching and practicing Christian apologetics; studying philosophy; challenging illegitimate government and ecclesiastical authorities; devouring gourmet hamburgers; savoring black teas; shooting guns; and fishing. 

The following labels capture Tony’s theological convictions:  trinitarian, Calvinistic, theonomic, amillennial, inerrantist, presuppositional, credobaptistic, congregationalist, and complementarian.  His favorite book outside of the Bible is Curt Daniel’s The History and Theology of Calvinism.  Greg Bahnsen, Arthur Pink, and John Frame are among his favorite authors.   His favorite hymn is Isaac Watts’s “Why Was I a Guest?”. 

Described by coworkers, family, and friends as detailed, curious, tenacious, disciplined, and compassionate, he strives to combine God’s thoughts, sobriety, humor, and sensitivity in his counseling.  It is Tony’s hope that through the ministry of Heartsong Renewed, many people find deeper communion with God and others as they heal and thrive from his and Angela’s Bible-based teaching and encouragement.