You may imagine that the Church has always been important to me. After all, I’m a minister! It’s my job! However it’s not the case. As I’ve remarked before, I grew un in a church-less home. We were agnostic. Mom came from generations of traditional Irish Catholics, though she herself no longer believed. Dad had no religious upbringing or commitments as far as I can tell. Nonetheless, they felt it couldn’t hurt to drop us off at the local Catholic church for a couple years until we got confirmed. I used those years to work on my one-liners, and sharpen my budding career as a “class clown.”

In high school my band director and his two sons, with whom I was close, shared the story of their faith in Jesus Christ with me. My band director was (and is) a fine jazz musician. He was also a man who drank a case of beer a day until a former student came to his door to share the gospel with him, and he was radically converted. When he asked me, “Would you like to attend a Bible study?” I thought it was crazy—but I trusted them. A year later, I believed.

My conversion, as you might imagine, made mom and dad nervous. My youthful and judgmental faith didn’t help. So, while I faithfully attended a weekly Bible study, bringing up the idea of attending church regularly seemed unwise. My Christian knowledge at that time was basic, my lifestyle pretty much still ‘pagan,’ and my spiritual growth moving ahead about 15mph. My life wasn’t changing much.

So I didn’t really attend church until my second year of college. After my first year (which was spiritually messy) at the University of North Texas, I transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston. I got involved with Park Street Church, a solid, protestant, evangelical congregation. I attended both their Sunday morning worship services and their college Community Group with friends. For the first time I was hearing God’s Word preached faithfully and hearing it regularly. I had peers who took their faith seriously, and I learned to become vulnerable with them.
The few Christians I knew at Berklee and I started the campus’ first-ever Christian student group—which is still around today! The college pastor John Cuyler and his wife Carmel poured love and encouragement into me. And my life began to change. 

Thirty years later, I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence that my life changed at the very same time that I “found” church. God has located his life-changing grace in the scripture, prayer and the sacraments, and within the context of a community called the church. Even today, as I serve in the church, worship in the church, participate in the mission of the church; learn to do friendship, marriage, parenting; weep, rejoice, suffer, repent, hope in light of the church, I keep changing. 

The church can be frustrating, tiring and disappointing—but mostly, I’ve found it life-changing.