My faith journey and my experience with religion is interesting.
I was raised in a family where my mother was a Methodist and my father really didn't go
to church and so our attendance at church was pretty sporadic as a kid.
My parents I can remember getting dropped off at Sunday school at the Methodist church
but they didn't go to church they just dropped me off and I went in and so that was kind
of my first experience with religion if you will.
I think my first real encounter with Jesus occurred when I was eight or nine years old
and we neighbor next door invited me to go to a Bible camp and at the end of the camp
they gave you an opportunity to say the Jesus prayer and commit your life to Jesus and honestly
there was a little bit of fire and brimstone in the camp and so there was a little bit
of an element of maybe fear but I remember really distinctly sincerely praying that prayer
and wanting Jesus to come into my life.
I don't really think of having another real encounter like that until I was in high school
and a friend of mine on the basketball team decided that he wanted to become a Christian
and he asked a couple of guys he knew that he thought were good guys not necessarily
religious guys if we would join him on his journey his faith journey and so that meant
like going to all kinds of different churches and attending you know them and we went to
you know Pentecostal churches and Methodist churches we went to a Catholic church a guy
we knew was Catholic and he took us to church he wanted us to have like the primo experience
so he took us to the Basilica downtown and honestly it was super intimidating and we
were Methodist by nature I guess so we were used to this thing where you go up and you
take communion but you had it in your seat in the pew and so we got in line and we went
up and my buddy was in front of me and they gave him the host and he turned around to
go back to his seat because we were you know Methodist and all of a sudden all these ushers
appeared out of nowhere and they're like you must consume it here it was it was very kind
of intimidating and so at that time you know my experience with the Catholic church that
was it my my next encounter with faith though was really kind of a non-denominational evangelical
church that this guy and I connected with and it was a real seeker church the music
was great the guy was a professional musician out of LA and it was a great like really spirit
filled environment I mean there were there was like a Wednesday service where people
prayed over people and there was healing and speaking in tongues and and that was my next
really great encounter with the Holy Spirit and it was transformational I mean really
I mean I really felt the spirit in that encounter with that place having said all of that my
buddy and I after we went there for a couple of years there just seemed to be some depth
or something missing and I remember at the time because I had some exposure with the
Methodist church that it was there were no there was no like liturgy if you will like
we didn't celebrate Easter at this church there was no symbolism we met in an old liquor
store you know so so it was a it just there was just something missing from me my first
real encounter with the Catholic faith and the Catholic church came through my roommate
in college who ended up eventually studying for the priesthood as a matter of fact but
he had a Bible study and he invited myself and some other people and it's actually where
I met my wife was was through this Bible study and I started going to the campus church it
was very dynamic church it was the Paulists ran it and they were very much oriented towards
giving great homilies and sermons which I was used to and it was a great it was a great
experience and eventually I you know I asked my wife to marry me and part of the deal was
that we were going to raise our kids as Catholic and you know as a Methodist Methodist theology
isn't too stringent so deciding to go and having our kids raise his Catholic wasn't
too much of a stretch for me and I really liked what I'd seen in the Catholic church
and then I had this incredible experience in a sacramental way and I would say that
was a huge turning point for me and it was my wedding it was an amazing experience like
you know just spending the time with the priest preparing to get married with the other Catholic
couples then the actual wedding itself I just felt like I was home in a way it was just
an amazing thing and I would say just you know talking about my journey I have feel
like I have more of a Peter experience than a Paul experience and I'm always envious of
people that have Paul experiences where they you know they have this dramatic change mine
was more like a journey of milestones so I didn't join the Catholic church after I got
married and I had a lot of questions about the church and there were things that I seemed
to feel like you know I had questions about certain doctrines and things but I kept going
I kept going to church with my wife and then with my kids and and then I we moved out here
to Washington and I had an incredible experience here as well and it's when it all came together
for me and I would consider myself a Catholic from that point on and that we attended a
Western Washington charismatic renewal conference and I'll never forget being in the mass and
there was a super charismatic priest from Spokane and and it I mean I actually felt the Holy
Spirit there's a part where they asked the Holy Spirit to descend and actually the back
of my head felt warm you know like like like flames almost and and it just hit me that
the Catholic church had it all you know liturgically it was it was awesome you know this
priest gave a great homily the Holy Spirit was there and I didn't realize that until
I was there that that it had all of the components of the Protestant churches and so forth that
I loved but the the liturgy and the history and everything was there and it was it was
it was it was it was it was it was it was the Holy Spirit
