Journey to God
One Person’s Call to Ministry
by
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The Journey to God begins at age nine continuing through school years, call to ministry, college and seminary years and the 14 years of the Texas portion of the journey. Our journey will take us through cultural issues as Viet Nam, school integration, racial prejudice, changing communities, plus life and death issues facing congregants.
When embarking on this journey, there were no clues as to how to proceed, where to go or look, or how the journey would end, or what would occur along the way. So, the journey will take us through the cultural nuances of place and the view points brought to the discussion of social issues facing our nation.
Here is an excerpt portion of the school board called meeting to handle the federal agency’s request to integrate the school system:
The radio station was recording the meeting. The chair asked me to pray first and the lay minister to pray following. My prayer was about discernment, care and respect for others with differing opinions, and to call of us to remember we are all citizens of this School district and that we all are patriotic Americans.
He prayed that folks would remember that God created the world so that everything would grow according to its own kind. He prayed that we would realize that and not meddle with God’s plan by merging different kinds together as one. I heard a voice saying “Mr. Chairman, may I say something before we begin?” The voice was mine. Having walked down an aisle where hunting rifles, .45s, and bowie knives were in plain sight. (Yes, we were in a school. While weapons were rarely seen at school, no prohibition had been passed disallowing weapons on school grounds.)
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About the Book
Is God for real? Is there any meaning to life? These are the questions that urged a nine-year-old to start a quest that has lasted over sixty-nine years. The journey goes from coast to coast and from border to border.
The events run the gamut of the last half of the previous century: racial prejudice, school integration, Vietnam debates, and the place of Christianity in our sociopolitical society.
The accounts describe facing violence without fear, and finding solutions to complex problems.
What is it like to raise a family in a parsonage? Raising a family anywhere is a challenge and a joy. Whether in a parsonage or neighborhood household, having a faith to live by is a resource that makes the difference.
What is different about Journey to God? The approach is to use the experiences in our everyday life together and in language anyone can understand. One does not have to be highly educated or have special spiritual experiences to discover how the divine works in today’s society.
Journey to God demonstrates how an everyday person with everyday abilities can experience a presence today that is usually reserved for the days of the Bible. While the characters in the Bible seem bigger than life, one does not have to be bigger—one only has to be alive to experience the same sense of the divine most assume exists only in the past.
About the Author
Dr. Ron is an ordained minister with an earned doctorate. He writes a column entitled I Believe. Dr. Ron has served congregations for fifty-plus years.
Dr. Ron and his wife, Robbie, have four grown children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They make their home in Cherokee, Oklahoma.