C
I did not actually start out as a spiritual person. I was the weird and nerdy kid everybody picked on in school. I “got saved” when I was about six or seven years old, but I really did not understand it at the time. The business of being a kid, mixed with the fact that my family was not religious, meant that I walked away from it quickly at the time. I begin with this small detail because even though I did not see it at the time and walked away from God...my spiritual journey is rooted here because he never walked away from me. My story starts in Columbus Ohio, on the east side just outside of Whitehall. My mom and dad argued a lot, and if they were not arguing, they were at work. Mom worked nights, and dad worked days. Dad was a good man, and he worked hard. By the time he got home from work, he was exhausted, so he would pass out on the couch almost immediately. Mom did not get home from work until about 10:30pm, and my younger sister and I usually only saw her on Friday nights and on the weekends when school was in. I have a brother that is 8 years older than I am, but he was never around. The rule was that we were not allowed to go out and play until dad got home from work. (This was about 6pm) So, by the time we were allowed out to play, all the other kids were being called in for dinner. I was a lonely kid.
Through most of my schooling, right up until ninth grade, I was an awkward kid that everyone picked on. I was an outcast, and I did not really have any friends. I loved to read, and I spent most of my time doing that or watching television. For most of my schooling, I had to ride the bus across town to a ghetto neighborhood, and I really felt out of place there. The black gangs here in Ohio were just gaining popularity then, so I caught my share of beatings.
Everything started to change in the ninth grade. Dad used to forbid me to fight in school, so I started cutting school to avoid the daily confrontations. I had a lot of hatred and anger in me by that time due to the continuous harassment. It was in the last part of September during the ninth grade when dad finally gave me permission to “defend myself”. Something about that first fight changed me, and I will never forget the first time I “let the monster out”. All of that rage and anger was first released on an unsuspecting bully named Todd. It was exhilarating to let that anger out, and I quickly became a “rage-aholic”. Word was out that “little Dennis” got in a fight, so more and more challengers lined up. I spent more time suspended from school that year than I did in the classroom. That summer I started lifting weights solely because I wanted to be stronger, faster, and more powerful when the next fight happened. I hated people, I hated the loneliness, and I was determined to unleash on the world the pain I perceived that they had caused for me. I bombed in school and wound up dropping out in the first part of the 12th grade. It was right after that I was introduced to Satanic Realism and the promise of supernatural power by demonic possession. (The reason and circumstances behind this one will have to wait for another time!) I participated in a ceremony and became demonically possessed. To this day, I call that the single biggest mistake I ever made in life. At one time, I had gone to World Harvest Church with some Christian friends, and Rod Parsley himself cast the demon out of me. I walked away from those friends shortly thereafter, and never put any work in to protecting myself from those forces, so eventually I wound up worse than I was before. I started doing drugs and drinking alcohol and I made several friends who shared the same addictions as I had. There is a saying in the drug subculture here in Ohio that goes “A friend with weed is a friend indeed”, and I had many friends. I loved the bar, and I found out that if I worked as a bouncer I could fight all I wanted, plus drink all I wanted for free. That was my life up until I was about 22 years old. I was invited to all the parties (and had a few blowouts of my own), and I was surrounded by people that looked up to me. Some things happened in my life (more details for a later time) and I found that I really was not happy. I hated my life; I was still lonely on the inside even though I was surrounded by close friends. This is where the expression “When you hit rock bottom...the only place you can look is up” became truth.
I had a supernatural “spiritual” awakening at this time and found God here waiting for me. My friend Lori was having her 21st birthday party. She had invited her cousin Cher, and Cher was a Christian. She was unlike any other Christian I had ever met, and she struck up a conversation with me later in the evening. I was high on pot when I got there, but while we talked, I was supernaturally sobered. It was like God saying, “Dennis, I need your mind to be clear for this!” I cannot really remember exactly WHAT she said, but what I do remember was more what was behind her words. I had been told, “Jesus loves you” by multiple people, had been handed several Bible tracks, and had been the receiver of many “hellfire and brimstone” speeches...but never really cared. What was different about her was that she spoke about Christ as if he was a person she had a relationship with. That is what really pulled and kept me in the conversation. She talked to him, and he talked to her. I remember listening and thinking well into the next day “Can I really talk to God like that?” That question gnawed at me so much that I met with her dad and a guy named Steve O’Brian the next day. I put all my demonic drawings, skulls, and pot smoking utensils in a garbage bag and burned them that day in a barrel outside her dad’s office! I remember watching the smoke rise into the sky and having tears in my eyes thinking, “God, everything I know about me is burning away in front of me...who am I now?” God answered me that day and said “Dennis, that is NOT you...it never was; now if you will walk with me I will show you who you are.” That was about 17 years ago, and although I have had some rough times...I have not looked back since!
I was baptized at her family’s church in Lancaster Ohio that Sunday night. What I remember about that night was that immediately after I was pulled back out of the water, there was an albino looking guy standing to my right. He asked me what my name was, and I told him, then he said: “Congratulations brother, now there is an army of angels having a party in your name.” I remember looking around at everyone else in the room and thinking “That was the coolest thing anybody has ever said to me.” When I looked back...he was gone? THAT experience has carried me through many rough times! I had some backsliding for a couple of years, and did some church hopping at the same time. I met a couple wonderful men of God who did their best to feed into me but it just did not “take off” for me right away. At some point in time, I decided that if Christianity was going to take root in my life, then I needed to seek out a good Christian woman to settle down with. In September of 1994, I met Melinda...my queen. We dated for about a year and then she turned up pregnant. We had been talking about marriage since about our third month of dating...so all the pregnancy did was speed things up a little. We BARELY made it through our first couple of years of marriage due mostly to my carnality, but one by one I defeated the demons in my life and pushed forward. Melinda has modeled Christ for me by her unconditional love and patience she has shown me over the years. This November will mark 14 years of marriage for us, and not even Pamela Anderson can turn my head away from my queen! Melinda is my second wife, and I had a daughter (Danielle) with my first. Danielle will be 19 years old this summer in July. Brandon (my son with Melinda) was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1996.
In the first church Melinda and I attended, I came on (quite naturally) as a volunteer in the youth ministry. I have been youth pastor to four different groups of kids since then, and Melinda and I currently have a group on Thursday nights at the Inner City Mission on the west side of Columbus Ohio. At our last church, my New Years Eve parties for the youth became the stuff of legends! At our last one, we had just under 150 kids, and easily a third of those were unchurched. I have had the privilege of sitting next to several of my former youth group kids in classes at the Christian university I attended. As soon as most of them are able to drive, we get frequent “pop in” visits from them no matter where we live. No matter what God calls me to when I graduate, I will likely still have an interest in working with the teens. (They need an influence like Melinda and I) I have preached all over Ohio, and across several denominational lines.
God is good…all the time…
Through most of my schooling, right up until ninth grade, I was an awkward kid that everyone picked on. I was an outcast, and I did not really have any friends. I loved to read, and I spent most of my time doing that or watching television. For most of my schooling, I had to ride the bus across town to a ghetto neighborhood, and I really felt out of place there. The black gangs here in Ohio were just gaining popularity then, so I caught my share of beatings.
Everything started to change in the ninth grade. Dad used to forbid me to fight in school, so I started cutting school to avoid the daily confrontations. I had a lot of hatred and anger in me by that time due to the continuous harassment. It was in the last part of September during the ninth grade when dad finally gave me permission to “defend myself”. Something about that first fight changed me, and I will never forget the first time I “let the monster out”. All of that rage and anger was first released on an unsuspecting bully named Todd. It was exhilarating to let that anger out, and I quickly became a “rage-aholic”. Word was out that “little Dennis” got in a fight, so more and more challengers lined up. I spent more time suspended from school that year than I did in the classroom. That summer I started lifting weights solely because I wanted to be stronger, faster, and more powerful when the next fight happened. I hated people, I hated the loneliness, and I was determined to unleash on the world the pain I perceived that they had caused for me. I bombed in school and wound up dropping out in the first part of the 12th grade. It was right after that I was introduced to Satanic Realism and the promise of supernatural power by demonic possession. (The reason and circumstances behind this one will have to wait for another time!) I participated in a ceremony and became demonically possessed. To this day, I call that the single biggest mistake I ever made in life. At one time, I had gone to World Harvest Church with some Christian friends, and Rod Parsley himself cast the demon out of me. I walked away from those friends shortly thereafter, and never put any work in to protecting myself from those forces, so eventually I wound up worse than I was before. I started doing drugs and drinking alcohol and I made several friends who shared the same addictions as I had. There is a saying in the drug subculture here in Ohio that goes “A friend with weed is a friend indeed”, and I had many friends. I loved the bar, and I found out that if I worked as a bouncer I could fight all I wanted, plus drink all I wanted for free. That was my life up until I was about 22 years old. I was invited to all the parties (and had a few blowouts of my own), and I was surrounded by people that looked up to me. Some things happened in my life (more details for a later time) and I found that I really was not happy. I hated my life; I was still lonely on the inside even though I was surrounded by close friends. This is where the expression “When you hit rock bottom...the only place you can look is up” became truth.
I had a supernatural “spiritual” awakening at this time and found God here waiting for me. My friend Lori was having her 21st birthday party. She had invited her cousin Cher, and Cher was a Christian. She was unlike any other Christian I had ever met, and she struck up a conversation with me later in the evening. I was high on pot when I got there, but while we talked, I was supernaturally sobered. It was like God saying, “Dennis, I need your mind to be clear for this!” I cannot really remember exactly WHAT she said, but what I do remember was more what was behind her words. I had been told, “Jesus loves you” by multiple people, had been handed several Bible tracks, and had been the receiver of many “hellfire and brimstone” speeches...but never really cared. What was different about her was that she spoke about Christ as if he was a person she had a relationship with. That is what really pulled and kept me in the conversation. She talked to him, and he talked to her. I remember listening and thinking well into the next day “Can I really talk to God like that?” That question gnawed at me so much that I met with her dad and a guy named Steve O’Brian the next day. I put all my demonic drawings, skulls, and pot smoking utensils in a garbage bag and burned them that day in a barrel outside her dad’s office! I remember watching the smoke rise into the sky and having tears in my eyes thinking, “God, everything I know about me is burning away in front of me...who am I now?” God answered me that day and said “Dennis, that is NOT you...it never was; now if you will walk with me I will show you who you are.” That was about 17 years ago, and although I have had some rough times...I have not looked back since!
I was baptized at her family’s church in Lancaster Ohio that Sunday night. What I remember about that night was that immediately after I was pulled back out of the water, there was an albino looking guy standing to my right. He asked me what my name was, and I told him, then he said: “Congratulations brother, now there is an army of angels having a party in your name.” I remember looking around at everyone else in the room and thinking “That was the coolest thing anybody has ever said to me.” When I looked back...he was gone? THAT experience has carried me through many rough times! I had some backsliding for a couple of years, and did some church hopping at the same time. I met a couple wonderful men of God who did their best to feed into me but it just did not “take off” for me right away. At some point in time, I decided that if Christianity was going to take root in my life, then I needed to seek out a good Christian woman to settle down with. In September of 1994, I met Melinda...my queen. We dated for about a year and then she turned up pregnant. We had been talking about marriage since about our third month of dating...so all the pregnancy did was speed things up a little. We BARELY made it through our first couple of years of marriage due mostly to my carnality, but one by one I defeated the demons in my life and pushed forward. Melinda has modeled Christ for me by her unconditional love and patience she has shown me over the years. This November will mark 14 years of marriage for us, and not even Pamela Anderson can turn my head away from my queen! Melinda is my second wife, and I had a daughter (Danielle) with my first. Danielle will be 19 years old this summer in July. Brandon (my son with Melinda) was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1996.
In the first church Melinda and I attended, I came on (quite naturally) as a volunteer in the youth ministry. I have been youth pastor to four different groups of kids since then, and Melinda and I currently have a group on Thursday nights at the Inner City Mission on the west side of Columbus Ohio. At our last church, my New Years Eve parties for the youth became the stuff of legends! At our last one, we had just under 150 kids, and easily a third of those were unchurched. I have had the privilege of sitting next to several of my former youth group kids in classes at the Christian university I attended. As soon as most of them are able to drive, we get frequent “pop in” visits from them no matter where we live. No matter what God calls me to when I graduate, I will likely still have an interest in working with the teens. (They need an influence like Melinda and I) I have preached all over Ohio, and across several denominational lines.
God is good…all the time…
