Pastor Paul is a native of southern California, having been raised in the Glendora United Methodist Church. He is a graduate of U.C.L.A., Yale Divinity School, and the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has worked as a parish minister, a youth director, a college chaplain, and a hospital chaplain, as well as a seminary and college professor.

He served for 28 years as a professor of theology at four seminaries and has authored books and articles on various theological topics. He has been a vigorous advocate for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the mainline Protestant churches and has lectured widely on this matter at churches and universities throughout the United States, including Harvard University and Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary where he was invited to deliver the annual lectureship on gay theology. His forthcoming book is about the need for criticism of the Bible.

After three decades of living elsewhere he is happy to return to to his home in California and to serve as the Senior Pastor of Christ Church by the Sea UMC in Newport Beach.