For the first 50 years or so of my life I never imagined being a minister. I always belonged to a church, but it was my wife Jana who made sure we attended. When asked to serve, I usually said that I was too busy. We moved every couple years in the Air Force, and I was always learning a new job. I’m sure I disappointed more than a few pastors who might have hoped that I would get more involved.

Now I tell people that if I can be a minister, you can too.

Looking back I can see all the ways that God was working on me through the years. If God wants you to do something, God will eventually get God’s way.

Even so, I was more than a little intimidated when my first call out of seminary at age fifty-six was as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.

Historian Gary Scott Smith wrote that the church is “the city’s first and arguably most important congregation. It is Pittsburgh’s oldest institution, predating any newspaper, school, or business.”

The church was known for its great preachers, the most famous of whom was Clarence Macartney, who served there from 1927 to 1953. Preaching magazine named him one of “The Ten Greatest Preachers of the Twentieth Century.”

So how could someone like me, a career military officer at that, possibly fit in?

It turned out that my lack of church experience had some advantages. I didn’t express myself in religious jargon because I didn’t know any. People seemed to appreciate that I had “real world” experience. Folks gave me space to make mistakes and learn. At first, every sermon was on a passage that was new to me, but it turned out that the questions I was asking myself were the same things most people wanted to know too.

Finally, I had realized long before that I had a gift for communicating complex ideas in ways that people could understand. It turned out that gift was just as important in ministry as it was in matters of national security.

Members of the church appreciated the clarity and relatability of the messages, and wanted to create a record of them that could be shared more widely. Hence, the idea of God In Our Arms was born.

I pray that Jesus will use the words in this book to make his Gospel real to your heart.  

                                                                       Every Blessing!  Tom