The Twenty-First Century Church: Is It Waxing or Waning (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780986405525)

I, the third of three children, was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived the first 20 years of my life there. In late Spring and Summer of 1954, I volunteered to be a worker at Lakeside Bible Conference in Carmel, New York. During the summer, I met several people who were already in a Bible College or preparing to enter their Freshman year. I stayed in a two-man cabin with a man who was President of the Student Body at Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University) in Columbia, South Carolina. We had been assigned to work with teenagers from New York City. However, during the course of the summer, my roommate would frequently ask me whether or not I had ever thought about what God's will and plan for my life might be. His question "bugged" me and I did my best to avoid him and the question. At the end of the summer, some friends who had pre-enrolled at Columbia Bible College, invited me to ride to South Carolina with them and then to hitch-hike back home. I had no other plans and decided to go with them. Just to "kill time" I sat in the Orientation Sessions. When I declined to receive the sheets that were distributed, a Staff Member asked me: "Why?" I indicat-ed that I was not a student and had not enrolled. I indicated that I would be hitchhiking back to New York once the classes began. In a very gentle way, the Staff Member indicated that if I en-rolled, he and others would pray with and for me that God would provide all that was needed so I could attend the Bible College. I decided to do that and enrolled as a College Freshman. I not only received an excellent Biblical Education but in the Spring Semester (1955) one of the enter-ing women students from Chattanooga, Tennessee arrived as a student. In the providence of God, she became my wife in 1956. In 1958, I transferred to a new Presbyterian school, Covenant College (in St. Louis, MO, now on Lookout Mountain, GA). After graduation in 1960, I enrolled in Covenant Theological Seminary and completed my studies there in 1964. After graduation, I was called to serve as Pastor in New Jersey. I have served as a Pastor in various places in different states continuously for more than 51 years.