{"id":782,"date":"2015-11-12T14:11:57","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/?page_id=782"},"modified":"2018-08-11T10:19:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T14:19:37","slug":"pastor-jim","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/about-us\/pastor-jim\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Jim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pastor<\/a>This is my story: My faith journey began when I was 19 years old. I had not been going to church regularly before that time-Christmas and Easter. I never been in Sunday school or Vacation Bible school.<\/p>\n

Then one Sunday morning I had a desire to go to church. What a strong feeling that was for me. I know that it was the Holy Spirit leading me.<\/p>\n

I went to church that morning even though I had never attended that church before or knew anyone in the church. When the pastor gave an invitation to accept Christ as their personal savior I went forward and was later baptized.<\/p>\n

Even though I became very active in the church-Sunday school teacher, board member, choir member, youth leader and counselor, I still felt a calling from God to go into ministry.<\/p>\n

In 1980 I began lay preaching in different churches. In 1983 a Congregational Church asked me to fill-in for their pastor for a few Sundays. When the pastor left they asked me to be their pastor. I was licensed and ordained in that church and served there as bi-vocational pastor until I was called to my present church on September 1, 1985.<\/p>\n

This was when I began my full-time ministry and became this church's first full-time minister in 50 years. It was difficult as I tried to build up the church but the Lord has provided. I have been at this church ever since that time and\u00a0 I feel that this is where God has placed me.<\/p>\n

In 1988 I felt God leading me to get more education to do His work, I enrolled that September and spent the next eight years as a full-time pastor and part-time student. I received my degree in 1996. I felt that it was time to be recognized by the denomination since I had been an ABC pastor for 11 years and received my M.Div. degree. After meeting with the board in Valley Forge I was accepted and recognized in October of that year.<\/p>\n

I still felt that I needed more experience in ministry to people in hospitals settings and in relating to my peers, so\u00a0 I continued my education by receiving three units of C.P.E. from 1996-1999 at a behavioral hospital in Mt. Gretna.Pa. and one unit of C.P.E. from a nursing facility in Allentown, Pa.<\/p>\n

Since that time I have taken C.E.U.'s as often as I can to help in my ministry and continue to grow in Christ.<\/p>\n

I will continue to serve the Lord wherever He leads me. I am convinced that God has called me to ministry and for that reason I consider it a calling and not a vocation. I have a desire to preach His Word, encourage, visit, and teach His people.<\/p>\n

I will continue to do His work as a Shepherd of this church\u00a0 with the guidance of His Holy Spirit for His honor and glory. Pastor Jim<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my story: My faith journey began when I was 19 years old. I had not been going to church regularly before that time-Christmas and Easter. I never been in Sunday school or Vacation Bible school. Then one Sunday morning I had a desire to go to church. What … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":43,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-782","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1505,"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/782\/revisions\/1505"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/immanuelonzerby.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}