Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

We have all been rejected. Everyone has had others in their lives that they have not accepted. That means we are all on both sides of this scene. When I was in college as a ministerial student, I had a person that rejected me. Not just as a friend. This was someone who did not like me at all. Fortunately, we were around each other for one summer and have never met again.

When I was growing up, I was raised in a Southern Baptist Church. Our pastor was forced from the church by a group of members. This was not the first time it had happened. Some in the church left. When I was a teenager, it happened again. I was graduating from high school when the third pastor I knew was pushed not just out of the church, but out of the ministry completely. His two sons were friends of my brothers and I.

I stepped away from that church. I was not rejecting Christ. I had a problem with church people. I don’t want to call them Christians because that would be rejecting the Messiah. I did not want to do that. I did not trust any gathering of people. I was certain that something must be wrong with those folks because all those pastors could not be the problem.

I spent about a year running from my faith. I wanted to acknowledge the creator God and His son, Jesus. I did not want to support an organized congregation. I attended a couple of other churches where friends were members. They did not seem any different from the body I had left.

I wanted to know who Jehovah was. I needed to be sure He was real, and that Jesus was His son and the savior that I had accepted as a child. I studied ethics, psychology, and other subjects in college that did not give me any answers. Other students were from different denominations or religions. I continued to pray that I would be shown what the truth was.

My old church called a new pastor, and he was visiting all those that had left the church. He came to my house with a friend who had taken me to another church with him. They invited me to a young adult Bible study that met in the minister’s office before the morning service.

I decided to give that church another chance. I had come to believe that God did in fact exist. That He had come to earth as a baby, grown into a man, and was executed by the Roman government. I was not sure that Baptists were always correct.

I believed that if I was going to believe in Jesus, I needed to trust the Bible all the way. I wanted to read it more critically than I ever had. If it was inconsistent as some claimed, misrepresented our world, or had an incorrect view of humanity I wanted to determine for myself what the truth was.

A short time later I had my mind made up and felt that I was being called to full-time gospel ministry. I changed my life plans, my college and major, and most of what made me who I thought I was.

I finished my degree at a Baptist liberal arts college. I spent the next two years studying the Bible and what ministry was. As graduation day approached, I had to decide if seminary was in my future. I felt that my ministry would not need an advanced degree.

When I graduated, I had a job and pursued a career in business while I waited for direction on how my ministry should proceed. Over the next forty years, I learned that there were other workplace ministers out there and that many employees and managers needed someone to talk to in a non-threatening manner.

I am now retired from business and changing my life work from a hands-on direct contact ministry to an internet writing career. I am not writing to make money, gain fame, or be an influencer. I want to give anyone interested an opportunity to realize that all of us are imperfect and need a savior.

If you have rejected God, Jesus, or the church, I hope that you will give my Lord a second chance. Don’t base your belief on those who follow Him. Read His word and ask Him to show you the truth as I have. Let me know if you need more information.

©Copyright 2022 by Charles Kensinger