As a pastor, I've spent 30 years talking to people and heard every kind of story imaginable.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My dad was a pastor, so we were in church all the time.
Re-telling the Christian story is the essence of my vocation. That has been going on since the Evangelists in one form or another.
I'm not only a Christian, but I'm a pastor of a church.
Had I been more religious in my youth, I might have become a pastor, for it was the pastoral role I'd sought.
I have been a Christian all my life, but it's impossible to be so deeply involved in these stories without it making you think again, and without it making you consciously aware of the people involved.
It certainly was unusual growing up with two fairly well-known pastors as my parents.
I went to church when I was younger, but it was never something pushed down my throat or anything, which is a good thing. I found out for myself where I belonged.
My mother and grandmother had me in church, and I was the kid that played in church. But pastor was telling me something totally different that there was a God. He knit me together in my mother's womb. He made me special. He wanted to have a personal relationship with me.
I spent, as you know, a year and a half in a clergyman's family and heard almost every Tuesday the very best, most earnest and most impressive preacher it has ever been my fortune to meet with, but it produced no effect whatever on my mind.
I was in Christian broadcasting back in the 1970s. I was director of communications for James Robinson, and I really thought Christian broadcasting was going to be my career. There have been so many twist and turns in my life; of course I haven't been a pastor for almost 22 years, but it was a very important part of my life.