Cedar Rapids Trinity UMC - It's ALL about Jesus!!

To say that Pastor Bob followed a winding path into ministry would be a huge understatement. For many years, he attempted to succeed in business, only to have every door shut in his face, to the point where, after turning 40 and being out of work, he wound up as a stay-at-home Dad for his kids while his wife supported the family. Little did he know that God was trying to get his attention during all of this, first calling him into a loving, saving relationship, and then pointing his life in this new and exciting direction. And so, when a new United Methodist church was built just blocks from the family home, Bob started taking the kids to Sunday School and staying for worship himself ("just for the kids' sake", he thought).

A new United Methodist pastor started at the church shortly thereafter, and suggested something radical to Bob - that he should open up the Word of God and prayerfully START READING!  Isaiah 55:11 NRSV says "...so shall my Word that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it." And so the Lord, through His loving Word, grabbed a hold of Bob, and the Holy Spirit drew him into a loving relationship where he gave his life to Jesus Christ, and, eventually, called Bob into pastoral ministry.

Pastor Bob knows that it was the love of Jesus Christ that saved him, and it is the love of Jesus Christ that Pastor Bob seeks to share with others, knowing that the "outward person" does not change until the "inner person" changes first - and that the "inner person" doesn't change unless we allow God to do so. Pastor Bob believes very strongly in the Scriptural admonition to "Seek, first, the Kingdom of Heaven and it's righteousness", and his teaching reflects it as he preaches that the Bible "means what it says and says what it means!"