He works to engage churches in ministry and advocacy for immigrant and refugee groups as well as for racial reconciliation throughout Alabama and the Southeast. An avid writer and researcher, Alan is the author of When Heaven and Earth Collide: Racism, Southern Evangelicals, and the Better Way of Jesus (New South Books, 2014) and is currently writing Receiving Faith: Immigrants, Refugees, and the Church in the American South (Urban Loft Publishers, 2018). Alan has an M.Div. with a concentration in Intercultural Studies from Gateway Seminary and a B.S. in Secondary Education – Social Studies from Mississippi State University.