member since: 07/30/08 13:04:09
The Lord has been very gracious to my family. As you will read in my testimony He has certainly called me out of darkness and into His marvelous light!
I have been preaching and teaching for about a dozen years and have seen the Lord do some incredible things.
I also maintain a web ministry at www.1in1000.org where I seek to equip the saints to answer the culture and proclaim the TRUTH of God's Word
I am presently a teaching elder at Mt. Pleasant Bible Church in Goodells, MI where I have been since 2000. I also fill a number of pulpits in the area from time to time and love to preach just about anywhere the Gospel needs to be heard.
This is the testimony I gave at my ordination;
I was born in a non-religious home with very little exposure to the Gospel or any Christian teaching. My father was arrested after church one Sunday while he still lived at home and my grandmother was so embarrassed that she quit attending. My mother grew up going to church, but it was more form than function. If her mom with whom she traveled couldn't find a church, a synagogue would do just as well. Other than a Baptist pre-school which I hardly remember there were only a handful of Christians that I encountered. In Jr. High I had a Christian friend who tried to teach me Christian songs on the guitar, but never said a word to me about his faith. I had a Cub Scout leader who made me memorize John 3:16 to get a badge but never explained its meaning to me. In college I had a roommate who was a Christian, but I did more to corrupt him than he did to witness to me. The only real Christian influence I had that was ever consistent was an aunt who began her journey as kind of a Jesus Freak in the '70's. She and her husband modeled the Christian life consistently from my childhood. Though they were not strong on theology, they were good folks, very loving. They raised their children to love the Lord and they are all still walking with Him today.
Without moral compass or spiritual concern I waded through life for 27 years pretty much working hard and playing hard as was the way of my peers. It was then that the Lord took the initiative to bring me to Himself. I was a partner in a T-shirt shop when the Lord brought Rhonda into my life. She began to work for my family in the T-shirt shop and I asked her out on a date and she accepted. She was raised in a Christian home but was not walking with the Lord. We began our relationship with going to the bar and immorality which was the cultural norm and which I thought was the way it was supposed to be done. She tried to witness to me, but could not get past my predisposition that I was a “good person.” She was not any different than I was at that point, so I didn't see where she was going with all of that. In just a few months she became pregnant and things changed. I was a heathen, but I was a responsible heathen. We quit going to the bar and I made sure that she had what she needed to care for herself and the baby. She moved in so that I could take care of her and during that time we began going to see a friend of her family who would give her foot massages that helped her with the water retention that was associated with her pregnancy. This dear Christian woman would spend 45 minutes massaging her feet with arthritic hands and then she would turn to me and tell me to get into the chair. She would spend another hour on me, all the time telling me her testimony; how the Lord had saved her and taken away her temper and her cussing. Between this and a customer I had who was printing shirts with John 3:3 in them I began to see myself less as a “good person,” and more as a sinner. Eventually, while under the weight of responsibility for the life of my son and in the privacy of my own room, I surrendered my life to the Lord. I began to read a Bible that my in-laws had given me. I trashed my pornography and my heavy metal music and started listening to talk radio because I couldn't stand the sound of the music I used to live for. I couldn't stand the taste of beer any longer and I disconnected the pirated cable I had spliced into from my landlord. Most importantly I became convicted about my immorality with Rhonda and as she came to see the change and we planned to get married, we ceased that activity as well.
Within a year I was working with 9-10 year-old boys in my church. Soon after that a man who I was working with took the time to disciple me, meeting me at 5:30 in the morning for 18 weeks and building me up in the faith. Within three years of trusting Christ my Sunday School teacher decided he needed to quit teaching and the class was in danger of being disbanded. It was a pretty large church and wold have probably gone unnoticed by most of the people there. I felt at that time that the Lord was prompting me to teach, but the class had in it some people who had been saved longer than I had been alive. I went to my pastor and told him what I was experiencing and he told me to go ahead and teach the class. After the first lesson I was confronted by my former teacher's wife who told me that I wasn't teaching, I was preaching. I was encouraged to continue and I taught the class for several years. As I was reading my bible one day I felt the Lord provoke me through Ezekiel 3. Feeling that the Lord was calling me to proclaim the truth of His Word to His people, yet that there were many who did not want to hear it. I kind of treasured that in my heart as Mary did the things that the angel said to her. I pursued the role of teaching and was given opportunities to preach, mostly at rescue missions and some pulpit fill, especially as I came here to Mt. Pleasant. This calling has been made apparent to my wife, my pastor and the rest of my church as well as to many whom that Lord has given me to mentor. At this time I am also involved in a ministry where I have been invited by some families to lead a bible study with the goal of planting a church north of Imlay City.
At this point in my life I cannot see myself not in service to my Lord and Savior, whether as a reverend or as a layman. I believe that He has gifted me and given me the opportunities to exercise these gifts and has confirmed the call through my local assembly and that it is now time to take the next step. Presently my life is encompassed by the study and proclamation of God's Word. My wife and I have never sought to broaden the ministry that God has given us or to move out without His clear leading. It has been our focus to deepen our ministry and allow God to expand it. This has never included formal training, i.e. Bible college or seminary though we are not opposed to this. It has engendered in me personally a love of learning that was not present before I knew Christ and has fostered a thirst for knowledge for the love of that knowledge rather than a set of credentials. I also believe that I have gained a greater knowledge base than I would have acquired in a formal setting.
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