Pastor Stuart was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama where he graduated from Homewood High School. In 1973 he was admitted to the School of Architecture at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and earned his B.Arch degree in 1978.  He remains a registered architect in the State of Alabama but only occasionally dabbles in that field today.  In 1981, he was admitted to Asbury Theological Seminary and earned his M.Div degree in 1985. He was ordained an elder in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1987.

He has served the New Columbus and Hinton UM Churches in the Kentucky Conference and Bethel, Clare Purcell and Oakland UM Churches in the North Alabama Conference.  He was appointed as the Pastor of Pigeon Forge-First UMC in July, 2018 and continues to serve today.  Previously he served churches in Townsend, Maryville, Jefferson City, Blountville and Greeneville- all in Tennessee and all in the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. After retiring in June 2023, Pastor Stuart became an elder in the Global Methodist Church and continues to serve the congregation now known as The Forge Church continuing with his preaching and teaching responsibilities.

Pastor Stuart is married to Libby and they have two daughters- Elizabeth who works on the Archaeological Team in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Rachel who is employed as an Architectural Intern at a firm in Knoxville.  The family has one cat, Oliver, who is, as cats often are, in charge of everyone.