A member of the National Teaching Faculty since 1998, he is a practitioner of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach to neighborhoods and organizational development. He has worked with a variety of religious, non-profit and municipal organizations including: churches, neighborhood councils, social service agencies, community associations, and health care organizations. His work encourages individuals, associations and institutions to identify their strengths, resources, skills, abilities and gifts and to build relationships between them. He is a trainer and facilitator of ABCD approaches to community building and problem solving.
An ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, he retired from active ministry after serving as the Director of New Ministries for the United Methodist Church in the Los Angeles Area, responsible for all new church developments and revitalization projects. For ten years he was Urban Strategist for the United Methodist Church in Southern California and Hawaii, helping congregations develop a dozen different community-building projects. He went to that position following 22 years as founding minister of the untraditional "Church in Ocean Park,” where he initiated a dozen social service projects and community organizations and served on the City Council and as Mayor of the City of Santa Monica. He is married to Ms. Susan McCorry. His son manages a special event company in New York City, and her daughter practices psychotherapy.