My background is a mixed bag of sorts. My parents are not religious or spiritual in anyway. I believe my father was baptized in the old German Evangelical and Reformed Church (now the Unitied Church of Christ), but I don't think he ever darken the door of the church again. He's been to a few weddings and funerals in churches but that's about it. He's never heard me preach.

My mother 'walked the aisle' in the church that I later joined. She has been an infrequent attender since. She has heard me preach a couple of times.

I don't know of anyone other than an uncle who attends church either on my Dad's or Mom's side of the family, with the exception of my uncle who attends a Missouri Synod church and is very active. It is a bit of a stretch to say that he is a believer.

There is only one explanation for my being a Christian...God's grace! Thankfully I was introduced to the doctrines of grace by Roger Ellsworth, who was my pastor when I was in undergraduate school. Of course, God's Hand was in that too.

I was a little bit of a trouble-maker in my early days as a believer in the little Arminian church (SBC). I was asking a lot of questions that a Calvinist would ask. Do you know what I read to cause me to ask those questions???....well, the Bible, of course!

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Ivan Schoen, Pastor * Maranatha Baptist Church, Poplar Grove, IL * http://maranatha-sbc.org/

"I want to assist churches and to assist pastors in training pastors. But, after fourteen years of service in this capacity, I am absolutely certain that the finest theological seminary on earth is absolutely incompetent at replicating the actual life of a Gospel congregation. I want to train a generation of pastors who will train pastors, and I want to help them in that task." --- Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President of THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY