I would have to say that it was good ol' Billy Graham who introduced me to Jesus! I remember watching his crusades on TV with my dad when I was ten or so, and praying the prayer with Billy afterwards. I had no opportunity to make it public until I was fourteen, when my two sisters, my brother and mother all went forward at an altar call and were baptized on the same day.

I had started out with a childlike faith in a beautiful, wonderful, loving Father-God, but somehow over the next couple of decades that mental picture changed to one of a Policeman-God whom one could never please or do enough for; whose supposed 'love' was just the bait to trap one into a miserable life of spiritual slavery. Yikes!

I knew the picture was wrong, but I couldn't shake it. I also had many issues with "cognitive dissonance"; the inability to reconcile in my mind what I believed with what I saw and experienced in the real world.

I see now that I had outgrown an immature faith, but didn't know where to go from there. So for ten years I went nowhere.

Then I started attending Bethel with my family, and we went to the Bible study at the Aitkens', where we were hosted with such brotherly love that it made me ask myself the question, "How could God be less loving than His own people?"

Also, through that same study I was introduced to two writers; Brian McLaren, author of "A New Kind of Christian", and Philip Yancy, author of some sixteen books including "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What's So Amazing About Grace?". These authors spoke directly and powerfully to me, voicing the very thoughts that I struggled with, but nonetheless helping me resolve the issues into a stronger, more real faith than I had ever had before.

Now I believe in a Father-God of love, compassion and justice, and a Jesus who didn't hesitate to blow apart social and religious conventions in order to love everyone and especially the "fringe", and a Holy Spirit who, wow! really does knock on my heart's door when I take the time to listen.