About Keith

I was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1956, the son of an Baptist “PK” (“preacher’s kid”) who was a navy captain late in WWII and rose to international prominence as an electrochemist at Battelle, a Columbus think-tank. The “PK” married an “MK” (“missionary’s kid”) who was born and raised as a Quaker in the mission field in Kenya. So my fate was set…

I’ve been teaching the Bible and planting churches since about 1981, beginning in Xenos in Columbus, and now in northeastern Ohio at KSU and Akron University. I’m an OSU Buckeye alumni (journalism), post-grad from Ashland Seminary, and a voracious student of life. Visit the NeoZine to check out my recent writing efforts and commentary on the state of Christianity today, or listen to some of my teachings at the NeoXenos Podcast site.

It was  while I was undergoing training for teaching the Leadership Classes that I met the most beautiful and intelligent (and sweet!) lady anyone can hope to meet on this planet: Darlene Terman. As we started dating, they nicknamed her “The Terminator” because she was, of course, the woman I married in 1984. Together we had four children (but one miscarried), so now we tend three boys. Both Sean and Kyle are deeply immersed in our church-planting efforts here at KSU, where Kyle is a student and also serves as a young (but competent) deacon in the movement. Connor loves the ministry too, but he’s still in Junior High, so we’ll see what happens there. What is so amazing is that our oldest and youngest sons are seriously handicapped, but the life of the Body of Christ here is so vibrant, they simply thrive with love relationships. Sean is old enough now to drink beer (and make it), and he provides wonderful volunteer services at the Salvation Army and our North Street poverty-relief program, in addition to working at Giant Eagle, so he’s amazingly productive.

In ’91 I began moving towards extra-local church planting and began traveling around the state, teaching and supporting our fledgling church-planting efforts in Dayton and Cleveland (and sometimes in Cinci). I was bored with Columbus, not because Columbus is boring (even though it is), but because I knew I had a stewardship which required attention: I was so lucky to be raised in a missionary’s family and to be a part of the most exciting movement I’ve ever seen, I simply couldn’t “retire” in Columbus holding such knowledge; my conscience wouldn’t allow me to.

Fortunately our Cleveland work was really taking off, so I started working full time in this ministry teaching, leading, and building our NeoXenos Webs.

Now? I’m busily fomenting revolution–my favorite occupation of all I’ve tried.