Personal Testimony, Part 1

Salvation doesn’t happen gradually, but it can certainly seem that way to a person who is raised in a Christian home. Ever since I can remember, my family regularly attended church. Some of my earliest memories are of attending Sunday school at Grace Baptist Church in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and having to sit still in church during Reverend Ron Dillon’s sermons.

For a child raised in church by Christian parents, I waited an exceptionally long time to make a public profession of faith. My family moved twice, temporarily ending up in Casper, Wyoming, where we sat under the ministry of Reverend Jerry Polk at Boyd Avenue Baptist Church. It was there at age 12 that I publicly professed faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was baptized soon thereafter, on the Sunday my father was licensed to preach.

Two more moves during the awkward high school years found us in Denver, Colorado. The years between my baptism and our move to Denver were marked by fluctuating periods of typical (though not necessary) teenage rebellion and spiritual renewal. My 11th and 12th grade years in Denver were a time of renewal under the youth ministry of Art and Jodi Treherne and the Christian education of Beth Eden Baptist High School. Not only was that a time of spiritual renewal, it was when I met my bride-to-be, a gorgeous and godly young lady, the former Miranda Kyle. It was also during this time, on a spiritual mountaintop during a youth camp at Glorietta, New Mexico, that I first surrendered to Christian ministry.