1. Personal Background

          I am currently 60 years of age.  I was born in rural, central Ohio and grew up on a farm.  I am the oldest of five children.  I attended school  for 12 years in the Groveport Madison School System before going on to college at Capital University, a small Lutheran school in Columbus, Ohio.  Once I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts Degree I went into the United States Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant.  I served for 20 years at bases in America, England, Thailand, Turkey, and traveled to many countries of the world during my 20 year tenure.  I received my Masters of Science Degree in Management from the University of Arkansas.  I have been in most of our 50 states.  Upon retirement from the Air Force I went to the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado and earned my Master of Divinity Degree.  I have been serving as pastor of churches ever since.  More information on my background is presented in the paragraphs which follow concerning some of my life experiences.

2.  Conversion

        Some have wondered about the date and time and place and method by which I was saved.  Concerning these let me say that I can not give a specific date and time and place.  I was raised in a loving, Christian home with my parents and my two younger brothers and two younger sisters.  I am the oldest child.  As long ago as I can remember I said my prayers on going to bed and attended Sunday School every Sunday.  It was a loving home and Jesus was always a part of it.  I was baptized as an infant and confirmed at around age 11.  I have given my life to the Lord and around age 12 told Him I'd be a pastor for Him when I grew up. I can't remember a time I didn't know Jesus.  As I grew in years my childlike ways gave way to the adult ways of growing maturity.  I came to know Jesus as Lord of my life and in high school was active in youth fellowship at church with my peers.  When in college, at Capital University, a Lutheran sponsored school, I continued to grow in the Lord and my sophomore year enrolled in a pre-theology curriculum.  The Lord Jesus is at the center of my life as my personal Lord and Savior.  I have His assurance of salvation!  I have been made new by the Holy Spirit and am a new creation through the Lord.  As to a specific time and place or method, I can be no more precise than what I have just stated.

3.  Call To Ministry

Clarence Jordan once said to his congregation that "If, according to popular opinion, being called to the ministry means spending all night in prayer, fighting constantly that voice which persistently speaks, being borne on the floods of passion, or having an 'experience' -  I repeat -  if it means all that, I doubt very much that I have been called.  But if being called to the ministry means lending an attentive ear to a simple statement, 'My child, I want you to preach for me,' then most assuredly I have been called to the ministry."

         I can accept Clarence Jordan's statement very well as my own experience.  I have not found so succinct and yet so complete a statement anywhere else which would describe my own call as well.  However, each of us is different and more is required if I am to describe my own call to the ministry.  There were no bells and cymbals clanging, no great light filled the room, there was no one moment I can point to, when "I knew" that I was called to the ministry.

        I first felt the tug from God on my heart about age 12.  My call, was a gradual one which covered many years and a myriad of experiences with numerous people.  It was not that I was resisting my God, I was not.  I was serving my God in my daily life, witnessing to others as I lived among them.  I have traveled the world and lived in many foreign countries and always God was with me.  I found no place where God was not.  My experiences have taught me that we do serve a great God Who loves each one of us dearly.  I have served my God in various capacities, and now I serve Him as an ordained minister.  I truly believe that is what God wants me to do at this time.  I will preach the Word of God to all who will listen.

4.  Preparation

        When I graduated from college in 1967, the Vietnam War was heating up.  I went into the Air Force with the understanding in myself that when my time was over I would go to seminary and become an ordained pastor.  Little did I realize at the time that I would be in the Air Force for 20 years.  I wasn't running away from God, I was fulfilling what I believed I needed to do to serve my country and my God.  At all the places where I was stationed for these twenty years, I was active in the local base chapel services, or in church in the local community.  Under the supervision of the installation chaplain, I led a special Sunday evening service while in Turkey.  In Idaho I was able to be instrumental in leading a Wednesday evening service.  While in Idaho I was one of the originators of the Outdoor Adventure Program which took young airmen from the city and took them into the mountain wilderness.  They learned to backpack, hike, and some of us even became kayakers.  This program always had a decidedly, intentional, Christian, backdrop.  In all my time in the Air Force traveling the world, I never found a place or a time where God was not.  God allowed me to grow in my faith and experiences.  When I left the military after twenty years, I went to seminary.  I believe I was able to become a much better pastor than I would have been had I come to seminary straight out of college.  As a layman for twenty years in the Air Force, I was continually being prepared for the Lord's call to the ordained ministry.

          In 1988 I began pastoring a church out on the plains of Colorado at a place called "Last Chance."  What a wonderful place to pastor.  I have pastored five churches.  Howard United Methodist Church for 2 years and 9 months, seven years at Genoa United Methodist Church, and while serving at Genoa, four years serving the Seibert United Methodist Church.  From 1998 to the present time I serve the Genoa Community Church and the Seibert Community Church.  While serving these congregations over nearly the last almost eighteen years I have seen my call confirmed.  I have watched people grow in the Lord.  I have observed as our youth came to know Jesus as their Lord and I prayed for them as they grew, and continue to grow, in their faith.

        Over these ever many years I have led the worship services at numerous funerals.  For me the funeral is indeed a very special time.  Everyone is intently paying attention to what I am saying.  At these times they have been brought face-to-face with death, and they want to know for sure what the Lord says about death.  My funeral sermons have been some of my most closely listened to messages.  I believe the Gospel becomes intensely and personally real to people at this very intimate and special time.

        Baptisms are another very special time of worship when people from the family of the person to be baptized come to church.  It is another special time of reaching people in a special way with the Light of God's Gospel.

        During these years of my pastoral ministry I have seen God verify my call in the people to whom I have witnessed.  I have watched many people grow in faith and come to know the Lord.  Many young people have received the Lord.  I've even watched many older adults learn new things about God and seen their faith grow as they've allowed the Holy Spirit to work in their lives and have come to know God on a personal level.

        I intend to serve God with all my being as long as I may live.  However long that may prove to be, I will serve Him.

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