Pastor Jerry "Live!"

Live free of fear and guilt. Today!
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About Us /Theology 
  
Pastor Jerry could never decide what he wanted to be when he "grew up," so he decided to not grow up!  Well actually, he just kept the "kid" as an important part of him, while doing the "grown up" things that life requires. 
 
     Jerry won an all expenses paid trip to sunny Southeast Asia in 1969 due to ADD induced "difficulties" in his college years.  They let the local draft board know the last time he dropped out. (Surprise, boy!  Here's your green suit and gun. Stand over there.)
     For many years, his "day job" alternated between school teacher and building contractor.  After God provided encouragement to get back on track, he spent a number of years as a licensed United Methodist pastor, and as a full-time home missionary in New York and Cincinnati for the Assemblies of God, with a spoonful of the Vineyard mixed in for flavor.   
   "Pappaw" has a lot of fun babysitting his two grandaughters, but reports that it's getting hard to keep up with them.   He has been married to the same girl for 42 years.
 

THEOLOGY

1.  We believe that Christ's sacrificial death on the cross has paid for all our sins.
2.  We are adopted into God's family by identifying with Christ's ressurection through Baptism.
3.  We grow in faith, love, and grace, day-by-day and step-by-step, as we are led by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Though I differ slightly on a few points, this site is a great summery: http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp
 
Often those who spend their time arguing theology spend precious little of it helping others.  Frankly I have much better things to do, so don't expect an answer to some theology rant. 
 
Time permitting, I will respond to honest questions of those seeking a better relationship with God
 
Pastor Jerry
As I related in my book, I was a practicing all-out heathen until a group of "Bible thumpers" on the edge of my small Iowa town started praying for me.  (Thanks John, Sharon, & family for your encouragement)  After getting back on track with God's plan for my life, I remember telling Him that I would go where ever he wanted me to except New York.  Well, you know how that always works out.  A couple years later, the New York Teen Challenge did some restructuring and Cincinnati Teen Challenge offered me a position.  Yep, yellow Ryder truck again.  I spent almost four years with them.
 
Some years later, after getting my pastor's license, one fall I was assigned to a small Ohio  United Methodist church.  I was told to keep it open until after Christmas and then close it down.  I messed up my first assignment;  six and a half years later when I left, we had not only kept it open, but had rebuilt the church from the bell tower on down.  The projects were even totally paid for when completed.  Many of the folks who witnessed and participated in the mighty works described in the book are still there to this day, should someone need to contact them for encouragement in their own church situation.
 
 

 
 The Marryin' Man
Me about to marry my nephew and his fiance'.
                 Scary, eh?
 
copyright 2007
 
If your Cincinnati church or other organization needs a speaker/preacher/encourager, contact me.