An amazing thing happened on my way to church ministry. I got licensed, put the rest of my life on hold and got a Bachelor's Degree in Ministry Studies and an additional Associates Degree in Business Management. I discovered in my first church that many of today's Christians will condemn outsiders and excuse insiders for the same offenses. After 4 years of unpaid service in that denomination, I realized politics played a much larger role in ministry than calling from God. God moved us from there to another denomination and church, where, finally, I received a little salary for my service. I learned a lot of surprising things there, too. One was that, just because a Pastor preaches about leaders being servants doesn't mean he isn't looking to be served everywhere he goes. The second was that, it's possible for a church to go on just fine in attendance and income with almost a whole staff of selfish and self-serving ministers. Don't get me wrong...the church was one of the sickest places I've ever seen...out of thousands of members, nobody was growing in Christ except a few, like me, who were watching and praying. After the Lord had led me to resign and leave my salary behind, the senior pastor was fired for having sexual affairs with as many as seven women in the church besides his wife. One of those women was a pastor who had no training and no understanding of the Bible. The associate pastor who helped him cover it up was given a large church of his own to lead. The same denomination that gave him that church had lied to me about churches being available for me to lead. The pastor who turned them in is no longer on staff in the church.

After the Lord led me out, I realized, as a follower of Jesus, I would always be regarded as an outsider in the modern church...and that's a good thing, because I serve Him better from the outside, just like many prophets of old.