I am a  Huntsville native, having graduated from  Huntsville High School in 1964.  My family goes back four generations in the Huntsville area, on both sides.  During my earlier years, my family moved around the south.  For most of that time, we lived in Clarksville, TN, where we attended church at  Madison Street United Methodist Church.  This is the church where I have my earliest remembrances of the faith, was baptized and accepted the call to ministry.

I attended Birmingham-Southern College and later Emory University, where I received a Doctor of Ministry degree in 1986.  The United Methodist Church licensed me to preach and ordained me as a deacon in 1969, and I have served churches United Methodist Churches since that time.  Before coming to Trinity in 2003, my appointments in the North Alabama Conference included Canterbury UMC, Alexander City UMC, St. Mark UMC in Tuscaloosa, Attalla First UMC, and the Rogersville UMC.

My wife Judy has taught special education for twenty-five years and retired at the end of the 2004-2005 school year.  In addition, she has directed the Special Camp for youth at Camp Sumatanga for over thirty years.  We have two sons.  Jason is married and lives in Athens, TN where he serves as Associate Pastor at the Keith United Methodist Church.  Our youngest son, Courtney, lives in Huntsville and works at AmSouth Bank.
Judy and I are grateful to be back "home," and I am thankful for the opportunity to serve this wonderful church.

At annual conference 2008, Abi Carlisle-Wilke was appointed as our associate pastor.  Here is a brief biography.

I was born and raised in Florida. I lived until age 13 in Avon Park, Florida and then we moved as a family to Crystal River, Florida. My family attended the Baptist churches in both places. After graduating from Crystal River High School in 1971, I attended Florida State University. After getting my Bachelor’s degree in Social Work/Psychology in 1975, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky to attend Seminary. It was while working a Social Work internship placement that I heard God call me into ministry. I felt the call was to take all my background in Social Work and Psychology to help people as a Minister. At the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary I obtained the Master of Divinity degree in 1978.

I went for further training in Clinical Pastoral Education beginning with The University of Louisville Health Sciences System, Louisville, KY and then at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, AL. I also obtained training in Pastoral Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy with Charles Alexander with the North Alabama Conference Office of Pastoral Care and Counseling. I was ordained in the Crystal River Baptist Church in 1980 and endorsed by the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board to serve as a Chaplain in Hospitals. I transferred my ordination to the North Alabama Conference in 1987 and became a Full Elder in 1992.

I have served as Chaplain/Pastoral Counselor for Brookwood Medical Center, South Highland Hospital, and Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, AL; and then for the Pastoral Institute/Bradley Center in Columbus, GA. I then served on the staff of St. John UMC and Epworth UMC in the area of Pastoral Care and Counseling. I then moved back to the North Alabama Conference to serve at Aldersgate UMC, Wadley/Almond/Pleasant Hill circuit in the South East District, and St John UMC in Florence.

I am married to Bob Wilke, a retired Physician Assistant who served in the Army, Civil Service and other medical settings. We have adopted three children from China; Kara age 8, Kate, age 7 and Zach age 6. They will be attending Chaffee elementary. We are glad to be back in Huntsville and here at Trinity United Methodist Church to serve. 

I grew up in Haleyville, AL, where my parents and grandparents still live. There my family, including my younger sister Candice, attended Haleyville 1st where I was influenced greatly by pastors John Rutland, Jr. and Will Garrett.

Graduating from high school in 1995, I went to the University of Alabama to pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering. After about two years of being dissatisfied with what I was doing and exploring other areas of Engineering such as Civil, Mechanical, and Computer, I began to realize my discomfort was actually a call into the ministry.

After changing my major to Religious Studies with a minor in Computer Science, I began to feel that this was what I was called to do and began the exploring process of ordained ministry. During my senior year at Alabama I worked as the summer youth director at Hamilton UMC, served as Assistant Pastor at St. Mark UMC in Northport, and was president of the Wesley Foundation campus ministry. Despite this, I continued to remain a Christian and entered seminary at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in 1999.

While at Candler I was given the chance to experience many things that a small-town boy like me would otherwise not. From working in a second-stage recovery program for men suffering from substance abuse, to serving in a downtown church that ministered primarily to the homeless, to serving in an African-American congregation, I began to truly feel that this was what I was supposed to be doing and that my gifts of pastoral care and desire for missions were being used and developed. In addition to these experiences, I entered into another "mission field," rooming with former Trinity Associate Trav Wilson for two years.

Candler also provided me a chance to meet my wife, Laura Stephens-Reed, who is an ordained minister in the Alliance of Baptists. We were married in October 2003 after having spent the year after seminary 600 miles apart while Laura served as Minister of Education at Wake Forest Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, and I moved back to Alabama. Laura's current ministry is working in violence prevention programs at Safeplace, Inc., which is the domestic violence facility that serves northwest Alabama.

I come to Trinity from Weeden Heights in Florence, my first full-time appointment, which I served for four years. I was ordained as an Elder in Full Connection during the 2005 Annual Conference. 

I am a third generation Methodist. My grandparents on my mother's side were "hard-shell" Methodists, at Wesley Chapel in Fayette County, Alabama. We moved to Birmingham when I was four years old, and Woodlawn Methodist was my home church for the next twenty years

I found myself called to be a pastor in the United Methodist Church thanks to the influence of caring Sunday School teachers, a great youth director, strong preachers, including "Preacher" John Rutland, who served here at Trinity in the 70's. It really doesn't seem that long from Wesley Chapel to retirement.

I have served churches in the Gadsden, Anniston, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Huntsville areas, with one trip to west Alabama. However, most of my time has been here in the Huntsville district: Trinity, Latham, and Huntsville First as associate pastor, and University and Madison as pastor. We have been here long enough for our children to think of Huntsville as home, so they know where to come for holidays.

I was very pleased to work with Charles Gattis and this great staff when I retired. Sallie and I are glad to be back at Trinity!