About
Stan Bower - Senior Area Director
Stan Bower is the CBMC Director for the Dallas - Fort Worth area. Prior to graduating at the University of Texas–Austin with a bachelor in Business Administration, he played basketball at Texas Tech. Starting as an accountant for Pennzoil, Stan spent most of his professional career in Houston as a commercial real estate broker. Stan Became a successful business man, operating his own Commercial Brokerage Firm, Bower Interests. During his real estate career, Stan began to get involved with CBMC in the Houston area. Dave Rathkamp, CBMC Area Director in Houston, built a relationship with Stan and discipled him for over a period of 13 years. After those tremendous years of spiritual growth under Dave’s leadership, Stan entered full-time ministry with CBMC. In 1997, Stan moved his entire family to St. Louis, where he served as the Area Director for the past 20 years.
In 2017, Stan and his wife Laura have followed Christ’s leading back to Texas in a joint venture to facilitate the movement of CBMC in the Greater DFW area. Coupled with winning the lost and discipling the saved, Stan’s heart and ministry is that of one-on-one discipleship.
Stan and his wife, Laura, have four adult children and five grandchildren. Laura is a Baylor graduate and author of the book “WordSpeak”. All four children are graduates of Baylor University. John and his wife Kasey, along with their two children Jude and Leon live in Dallas, where John serves as the lead Pastor of Normandy Community Church in Lake Highlands. Mark, the second eldest is married to Leah, and they have one child named Zoe. They reside in Austin Texas where Mark works for Modern Message. Leah is a recent graduate of Duke Law School and is currently a clerk for a justice of the supreme court of Texas. Jenni is married to Jordan Kologe, and they have two children Rosalie and Levi. Jordan is finishing Seminary at Gordon-Cromwell in Charolette North Carolina. Katherine Grace, a recent graduate of Baylor University and works in marketing at Modern Message, of Dallas Tx.
If you want to see Stan, just look for a cowboy hat and boots -you can generally find him stirring up chaos either on the golf course or hunting in the backwoods.
Phil Carlson, Area Director
Phil Carlson is the CBMC Area Director and Young Professionals Coordinator for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Though Phil had been involved in CBMC off and on since 2008, it wasn’t until meeting Stan Bower in 2019 and attending some recently established local CBMC events that he was deeply impacted by what God is doing through CBMC. As his own life was being transformed through CBMC’s offerings, Phil left his career in higher education and directing a non-profit in 2020 to start working with CBMC first as a part-time Field Partner, later becoming a full-time Area Director. As an Area Director Phil serves Christian business and professional men through providing Christian discipleship, networking, relational evangelism training, mentorship, and more helping men to successfully grow in their spiritual, personal, and professional lives. As the coordinator of CBMC’s Young Professionals groups in DFW, Phil also connects business and professional men under 40 with the wisdom of more experienced Christian businessmen who want to invest in the next generation of business leaders.
In higher education Phil previously served as the Coordinator for Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Center for Faith and Learning, having also received a Master of Divinity degree from SMU summa cum laude. He has also completed some courses in Regent University’s Renewal Theology PhD program researching the rise of Messianic Judaism in Europe in the early 18th century through the Moravian missions movement. Phil has served in full-time ministry for over 15 years, co-founded and co-directed a non-profit focused on young adult and college ministry for over 9 years and has a background in retail banking, sales, small business IT support, and purchasing.
Phil and his wife of 11 years, Christy, live in Allen, TX where they are raising their son, Nathaniel, who was born in 2022. As the first-time father to a newborn, when Phil is not changing diapers or washing bottles, he enjoys spending his spare time growing as an amateur photographer taking thousands of photos of his son. When he can find the time, you might catch him at a driving range at a local golf course, going for a long drive to the country, or a long walk outdoors with his wife and son.