When I was about 20 years old I was dating a young lady who one day told me that she wanted to go to a new church plant in Westford, Ma. I asked why? She told me that she just want to try it; and so we went. The next week she wanted to go again and soon after she wanted to go on Sunday night and Wednesday evenings too. If I wanted to be with her I would have to go with her to church. At that time I didn’t understand it but the church preached salvation through Jesus Christ. Within a few weeks she went up front to accept Jesus as her savior. That was fine with me but I didn’t in any way understand it.
After a few months, on one occasion when I went to her house to pick her up for a date, to my surprise, the pastor was there and he wanted to talk to me. Once again he went over the plan of salvation and told me that Jesus had died to pay the price for my sins. I responded by saying, “I like to pay my own way.” I was somewhat stubborn but he just continued by giving me an illustration.
He said, “suppose that you and I went out to eat at a fancy restaurant and during the meal I got called away. And suppose that you saw me walk up to the register and pay for our meals and tip, would you pay again when you finished?” I grew up poor and so this was a no brainer. I said, “no, that would be stupid.” Then he told me that Jesus had paid for my sins and for me to go to hell to pay for them again would be even more stupid. I could not argue with that logic and I thought that if I accepted Jesus that he would let me go out on my date and if I didn’t, that he would keep talking. My thinking was, how could this hurt me? In a week or so I could just forget it all anyway so what is the big deal.
At that time I asked Jesus to come into my life and I meant it but didn’t understand it fully. Then I got to go out on my date. It took a few months but soon I felt a change coming about in my life. I also began to understand what I had done. That was fifty years and I have come to value that decision more and more.
A few years later I felt that God was calling me to become a pastor but due to my life circumstances and a divorce I felt that all I could do was lay ministry. I spent many years doing lay ministry but was asked to be an assistant pastor of a church plant. From there I worked part time in a few churches and then in 2009 I became ordained. In 2014 I began to do interim work and am still serving as an interim pastor.