| Meet Our Pastor | |
|
My faith journey began more than 10 years ago when two major things happened in my life – my daughter, Melissa, was born, and I was diagnosed with the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP). RP is an incurable disease that slowly causes your retina to die. The baptism of my daughter brought me back to the church, and the RP crisis brought me closer to God in prayer. In the spring of 2002 I had the classic conversion experience. Most people define the word "conversion" as meaning "change." When I say I had a conversion experience, I don't mean "change" – I mean conversion defined as a "turnaround." In my conversion experience, I realized I was living a life that was going the wrong way. I needed to turn around. It all began when my wife and I started attending a "Christian discussion group" at our new church. I'll never forget the first class, when they passed out the Bibles. They told us to turn to John chapter such and such. I took the Bible they gave me and put it down at my side. A woman in the group opened up another Bible and handed it to me. I closed it and it put it down with the first Bible they had given me. After the class I told the group leader, "I didn't come here for this. Let's have a discussion group, not a Bible study." He was a little uncomfortable, but he said, "OK. Do you mind if I read from the Bible?" I said, "Knock yourself out." (Yes, that's exactly what I said.) During the next six weeks we did a great deal of talking in that group, and I could see that this book, The Bible, really meant a lot to these people. Secretly I was becoming intrigued, so much so that two weeks later, I found myself sitting in my living room opening up The Bible. I remember reading the book of Matthew from the beginning all the way through the Sermon on the Mount. I finally had to stop reading because all the words of Jesus were speaking directly to me on that night. |
It was after 11 pm and my wife and daughter had gone to bed. I walked through the house, checking all the doors and turning off all the lights. In the darkness, I heard in my head the words that Jesus had called out to the fishermen: "Follow me." I stood before my bedroom window, looked out into the night sky and said softly out loud, "Jesus, I don't know what I could ever do for You, but I'm coming." I'll tell you what I tell everyone: If you give your life to Jesus, He'll take it. A few months later I was flipping channels and came upon a preacher giving a sermon from the text in Luke where Jesus says, "To whom much has been given, much will be expected." The preacher was using this text to preach about charity and giving to the poor and about how people in positions of authority and wealth should use their positions to help those in need. It was an important message about how Christians should engage the world. However, I remember thinking to myself, "I don't have any money to give. I'm not a person in any great position of wealth or power." The next day as I was riding on the train from my home in Portage to my job in downtown Chicago, this piece of scripture floated back into my mind: "To whom much is given, much is expected." I began to wonder why, at the age of 40, I wasn't rich and wasn't a man of great authority. Being a Christian, I now had a new way of looking at my life, and I realized that the reason I had no great power or wealth was because I had been foolish in my past with my responsibilities and my money. As I walked the six blocks to my office, I was flooded with the harsh memories of some really awful things I had done and said in my past. And when I couldn't bear any more thoughts, I said out loud, right on Michigan Avenue, "My God, You have been so loving and patient with me all these years!" Then bang! It hit me: "To whom much is given, much is expected." The conversion experience I had that night induced me to pursue a call to ministry in the Presbyterian Church. In the fall of 2006 I graduated as a lay pastor. I am a pastor who accepts people as they are. I remember how loving and patient God was with me all those years. However, I know that while God accepts us as we are, He never intends to leave us there. We all have much in our lives we need to leave behind. I preach that every day when the sun rises, we get a chance to start over, and every day I hear the words of my Lord Jesus say, "To whom much has been given, much will be expected." God bless you on your journey. Pastor Tim Reyna |
|
 |
