An ordained pastor, scholar, and author, Richard grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. He graduated from King College, Bristol, Tennessee and received his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He spent a year studying at the University of Tübingen, Germany, returning to be ordained as Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Tennessee. He later earned an S.T.M. at Yale University Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Richard has authored and edited several academic books and articles and has been a Visiting Professor of Theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary, an Adjunct Professor at Gordon Conwell Seminary, and a Visiting Scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2002, he joined the faculty of Erskine Theological Seminary, where he won the Allison Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2006, was granted tenure in 2008, and served until 2016. His primary commitment, however, has always been to the church. He has served congregations in Tennessee, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina. For the last eighteen years he has taught courses in Reformed Theology and Church History in the Lay School of Theology sponsored by the PCUSA Presbyteries of South Carolina. He frequently preaches, teaches, and provides special lectures in local congregations.

He is married to Martha, the daughter of a German Lutheran pastor whom he met at a conference in Amsterdam in 1986 sponsored by the Billy Graham Association. They have four grown children.