Porter graduated from Bethany Nazarene College in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion.
Porter's first pastorate was in Angleton, Texas and he was ordained in 1974 on the Houston District Church of the Nazarene by General Superintendent Charles H. Strickland.
After two and a half years in Angleton Porter was appointed to be a missionary to the Dominican Republic to start the Nazarene work in that country.
He was next assigned to San José, Costa Rica, where he was rector of the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas.
Porter was elected by the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene to be the regional director for the Church of the Nazarene in the Mexico/Central America Region in 1986, which includes eight nations from Panama to Mexico.