Pastor Dave was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of four children. He attended high school in the Chicago suburbs and attended university on an athletic scholarship. He graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. After University, he enlisted in the United States Army and he served in Vietnam during the war.
After the Army, he attended the University of Arizona where he earned his Juris Doctorate; he later attended Northwestern University where he received the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
He practiced law in Chicago for many years as a partner in several law firms, including his own (Magee, Collins and Lodge). His practice included litigation, business law, estate planning, and tax law. He has had several articles and a book published on diverse subjects such as legal medicine, theology, and taxation.
On Mother’s Day, 1994, having heard the Gospel clearly presented, Pastor Dave prayed to receive Christ as His Lord and Savior. Immediately thereafter he became involved in part-time ministry preaching and teaching at nursing homes, truck stops, jails, rescue missions, and churches. Following God’s call to pursue full time ministry, he enrolled at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, where he studied for over two years. He later completed additional coursework toward a Doctor of Ministry degree at both Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts and Nashotah House in Wisconsin.
In 1998, he accepted a call to become Senior Pastor and Elder of the Evangelical Free Church of China --- International Church in Hong Kong (“EFCC”). Pastor Dave served at EFCC for ten years. In 2006 he became the first non-Chinese Pastor to be ordained in the Evangelical Free Church of China denomination in its 120-year history.
As Senior Pastor at EFCC, he learned how to do ministry in the context of an international church in Hong Kong. He also planned and helped implement an extensive missions program that involved members in proclaiming the Gospel in Hong Kong and eleven different countries in Asia.
Pastor Dave and his family returned to the United States in 2008. Since that time he has been practicing law full time and doing ministry part-time, including preaching, teaching, and counseling homeless men and women at the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. Pastor Dave and his wife were members of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. Since July 1, 2018, Pastor Dave has been serving as Senior Pastor and Elder of the Evangelical Community Church in Hong Kong.
Pastor Dave and Theresa are Permanent Residents of Hong Kong and consider it their home, having raised their children here and having lived in six different neighborhoods over the years. They love dim sum, but frequently lament their inability to find a "decent pizza" in Hong Kong!
