My Story

By all accounts, I should be an agnostic. In my early twenties, I essentially was one—albeit with some lingering Catholic leanings. Had it not been for a single invitation, I likely would be an agnostic today—or perhaps even an atheist. But I'm not. I believe in God and hold to biblical Christianity. Here's what happened.

San Francisco in the 1960s

In the late 1940s, my parents immigrated separately from Ireland to America, met in San Francisco, married, and raised eight children. I was their second oldest, born in 1952. My siblings and I were baptized in the Catholic Church, raised in the Catholic faith, and educated in the Catholic parochial school system. Later, we would marry in the Catholic Church. We were Irish American Catholics. Catholicism was the one true religion. That's just the way it was.

An Unexpected Journey

Growing up in S. F. Bay Area also shaped who I came to be. In the 1960s and early '70s, San Francisco and the University of California Berkeley were centers of social and cultural change in America. New ideas, music, lifestyles, and ideals shaped youth culture and the nation.

In 1972, after my second year of college, I loaded my backpack and took a chartered flight to Europe for an adventure. Planning to return at the end of the summer to tour England and Ireland, I landed in London and immediately headed to Dover to cross over to continental Europe. As I waited for the youth hostel in Dover to open, I noticed a slender blonde approaching. Later that night, I introduced myself. Her name was Jean. She was a college student from Southern California. Like me, she was in Europe with no particular plan.

We crossed paths again—first in Amsterdam, then in Copenhagen. We toured the sights together, fell in love, and decided to travel together.

That summer, it seemed like every young adult from the U.S. and Canada was backpacking through Europe. At highway entry points, scores of hitchhiking backpackers lined up, hoping to catch a ride. By the end of the summer, we had traveled through ten countries, reaching as far as Athens and the Greek Islands. When the summer ended, I asked Jean to return with me to San Francisco. We rented an apartment, found jobs, and resumed our studies.

Something Missing

In May 1974, I graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Creative Arts, with an emphasis in Broadcast Communication Arts. I began working at KQED, the PBS television station in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Jean and I had what we wanted and were happy but not content. We both sensed that something was missing. Sometimes we talked about it late at night.

We knew we were far from God but didn't know what to do about it—or whether we really wanted to do anything about it. It was the lifestyle many sought: independent, free, self-directed. But it felt hollow.

Jean had once committed her life to Christ at a Baptist summer camp but had stopped attending church in college. Now she began to wonder if that had been a mistake. Quietly, she began to pray for God's help.

A Life-Changing Invitation

On December 31, 1974, we attended a New Year's Eve party in Marin County, hosted by Jean's employer. The next day, the celebration continued at his home. Around midday, I was overwhelmed by a heavy sense of meaninglessness and shame. I slipped away to a secluded spot behind some bushes and prayed. I told God I didn't like who I had become, what I was doing, or where my life was heading. I asked for help. The prayer was neither long nor eloquent—but it was sincere.

Six weeks later, Jean's friend Patricia invited us to a Bible study hosted by Phil and Rosa in their San Francisco home. The group was older than we were—some in business suits, all holding large Bibles—but a few were our age. Phil, a physician, led the study. There was no debate about the Bible's truth. The focus was on what it said and how it applied to our lives.

Driving home, Jean and I agreed the experience was a little awkward—but the people were kind. We returned the next week.

At the time, it didn't occur to me that Patricia's invitation might be connected to my New Year's Day prayer. I didn't even know that Jean was praying for God's help. Looking back, I believe the invitation was connected to both our prayers.

Wrestling with Faith and Doubt

By our second visit, we were more engaged. One night, the group read Acts 16, where Paul is directed by the Holy Spirit to go west to Macedonia instead of east into Asia. I asked, "Do any other religious books mention God directing someone not to go into Europe?" The room went silent. Phil asked me to repeat the question. Again, blank stares. He offered to discuss it with me after the study.

At the time, I assumed all religions were essentially the same—that God had assigned different faiths to different regions: Hinduism to India, Buddhism to Southeast Asia, Islam to the Middle East, Christianity to Europe. If God had directed Paul away from Asia, perhaps He had similarly guided others. Looking back, I can see the flaws in my reasoning—but it made sense to me at the time.

We kept attending the study. I tried reading the Bible on my own, beginning in Genesis. But the creation account contradicted what I believed about evolution. A few days later, I started again—this time with Matthew. Though I had grown up hearing about Jesus, reading His words as an adult felt entirely new.

A few months later, the Bible study moved to the apartment of Dale and Janet, a young married couple. Dale, a plumber with the local utility, became our teacher. He knew a lot about the Bible and welcomed questions. Each week, we studied a few verses from Ephesians. The room would fill with twenty-somethings, many sitting on the floor, eager to learn.

As we continued to study the Bible, three questions troubled me:

1. Evolution was accepted science. How could the Bible say God created everything?

2. The Bible was ancient. How could it be relevant or reliable today?

3. Every religion seemed valid. Yet Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). If true, that meant all other religions were wrong.

At the study, I met Tom, a former graduate student in marine biology who had become a Christian two years earlier. He had wrestled with similar questions. Our conversations were debates. I didn't admit it at the time, but his reasons for believing that God created us were better than my reasons for believing that we had evolved. I began to reconsider my position.

Over a period of weeks, Jean and I came to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that He died for us, and that through faith in Him we could be reconciled to God. Our studies in the Bible and conversations with our new friends convinced us that it was true.

A Crossroads

The more we learned, the more we felt uneasy about how we were living. One night after study, I told Jean we either had to get married or stop attending "Let's stop going," she told me. Marriage meant a major lifestyle change, one we weren't completely ready to make.

Yet the next week, we returned to the study, and soon after, we set a wedding date. In August 1975, we were married in the Catholic Church.

Shortly afterward, I took a job at Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Silicon Valley, and we moved to Cupertino. Believing my future was in tech, I began working toward a degree in electrical engineering.

We also started attending Sunday Mass at St. Joseph's of Cupertino Catholic Church and often visited a small nondenominational church that emphasized the Bible and the weekly remembrance of Christ with bread and wine. On Tuesdays, we joined a Catholic Bible study. On Fridays, we drove back to San Francisco for Dale and Janet's study, which had become the highlight of our week.

A year later, at a Bible conference, the speaker urged anyone uncertain of their standing with God to settle the matter by formally placing their faith in Christ. Just to be sure we were right with God, Jean and I prayed together and told God that we were trusting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

A Troubled Catholic

I was determined to remain Catholic. It was the faith of my youth, my family, my Irish American heritage. Jean, who had been raised Lutheran, preferred the nondenominational church we were attending, but she supported me in my decision.

I began a more serious study of Catholic theology. I needed to understand why, as a Catholic, I hadn't learned the way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Was I at fault, just not paying attention, or had the Catholic Church failed to tell me the truth about God and salvation?

The more I studied, the more troubled I became. The Catholic way of salvation was so complicated. In addition to what Jesus had done to save me, the Church taught that I had to do my part to be saved. I needed to receive the sacraments, attend Mass, pray, keep the Commandments, confess my sins, do good to others, die in a state of grace, and more. Somewhere amidst it all, the sufficiency and centrality of Christ in salvation were obscured—if not lost.

The Sacrifice of the Mass also troubled me. The Church teaches that the Mass is the sacrifice of the cross. Each time Christ is offered in His victimhood on a Catholic altar, the work of our redemption is carried out. The Bible teaches that the sacrifice of the cross is finished. Jesus, through His once for all offering of His life, has obtained eternal redemption for us. He is has risen and is alive forevermore. This is what we should be celebrating.

The Tuesday Catholic Bible study became increasingly frustrating. It felt more like a social gathering than a Bible study. I spoke to the leader about my concerns, and he promised that we would soon begin studying the Bible. When the change came, it turned out to be a discussion of a Catholic book with only passing references to Scripture.

About a year later, the pastor of St. Joseph's Church announced that the parish had hired its first head of adult education. He was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and held a master's degree in Catholic theology. The new head, the pastor promised, would begin teaching the parish's midweek Bible study.

When the evening came for the new study to begin, Jean and I joined about 200 people in the church hall. Sitting on metal folding chairs, we listened as the new director of adult education announced that we would be studying the Book of Job. That sounded promising. "I've been studying the book for weeks," he told us, "but didn't get much out of it. Anyway, we'll give it a try and see what happens."

Jean and I were stunned. Dale, a plumber, could hold our attention for 90 minutes with just a handful of verses. This man, trained in theology, found nothing worth discussing in an entire book of Scripture. I turned to Jean and said, "Let's go." We never returned.

Digging Deeper

We continued to go to Mass, and I continued my study of Catholic theology. I needed to understand why I hadn't learned about salvation through faith in Jesus—solely through Him and not a mixture of what He had done and what I still needed to do to merit eternal life.

After two years of study, I concluded that the core doctrines that distinguished Roman Catholicism from other forms of Christianity were based more on Church tradition than on the teachings of Christ in the Bible. Some Catholic beliefs, such as the Sacrifice of the Mass and the requirements of salvation, contradicted the Bible.

I was facing the hardest decision of my life. I had only good memories of my years in the Catholic Church. The Sisters of the Holy Names, who taught me as a child; the parish priests, all of whom I knew; and the teachers at my high school operated by the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, were loving and kind people who had contributed greatly to my education and life. Yet how could I remain in a Church that didn't teach what I now was convinced was the truth about Christ's work of salvation?

I told Jean I was ready to leave the Catholic Church.

Another Life-Changing Invitation

Jean and I became active in the ministry of the nondenominational church we had been attending in Cupertino. We began by working with junior high students, then moved on to high schoolers. We loved helping others grow in their faith and sensed that God might be calling us into full-time ministry.

In September 1979, William MacDonald, a respected Bible teacher in the area, was scheduled to speak at our church. I contacted him to ask if, after church, he would have lunch with Jean, me, and our high school group. A question-and-answer time would follow. Bill agreed, and it went well. As he was leaving our home, Bill paused at the door and asked if I had ever considered applying to the Discipleship Intern Training Program (DITP), in which he taught. I had heard of the program but knew little about it, so he invited me to visit and sit in on the classes for a day.

The DITP was held in those days at Fairhaven Bible Chapel in San Leandro. The two main instructors were Bill MacDonald and O. Jean Gibson. Bill had served as both a teacher and the president at Emmaus Bible College (then in Oak Park, Illinois) and had authored more than thirty books, including True Discipleship (1975). Later he would publish a commentary on the entire Bible titled the Believer's Bible Commentary (1995). Jean Gibson, a founding elder at Fairhaven, had authored a widely used series of Bible courses, the first being Survey in Basic Christianity (1979).

Together with Jack Davies, another elder at Fairhaven, they launched the DITP in 1973. They modeled it after Jesus' training of the Twelve, balancing academic study and practical experience in Christian ministry. They limited class size to 10 men to allow for daily interaction between students and instructors. They also designed the training to take place within a functioning local church. This was in keeping with the New Testament's teaching that Christ instituted the church as a place of instruction and training for service (Ephesians 4:11-16). The training was designed to be intense and last nine months.

Within two hours of observing the classes, I knew this was exactly what I needed. I applied and, having completed my degree in electrical engineering, began the training the following year.

During the final months of the program, I wrote my first apologetics work—a booklet titled Good News for Catholics. It compared the Catholic doctrine of salvation with the Bible's teaching on justification.

Full-Time Ministry

When I finished the DITP in 1981, I returned to engineering and was offered a position in the R&D lab at Hewlett-Packard's Santa Clara Division. I enjoyed the work, especially under the senior design engineer to whom I reported.

A year later, HP made a generous offer to several of us working in the lab with bachelor's degrees: full scholarships to pursue a master's at Stanford University via a video link between our lab and the university. It was an incredible opportunity—but my heart was elsewhere. In 1983, I resigned my position at HP. 

The next year, Jean and I, along with our two young daughters, moved to Ireland to help a growing church in Dublin. Our third daughter was born there. We loved our time in Ireland and thought we'd be there the rest of our lives, but God had other plans.

Return to California

In 1986, Bill MacDonald and Jean Gibson invited me to join the DITP teaching staff. After prayer and consideration, we accepted. That summer, we returned to the U.S. to serve alongside Bill, Jean, and Don Robertson, who had joined the teaching team shortly before I did.

As part of the DITP, I regularly led interns onto college campuses for training in evangelism and Christian apologetics. This included a nine-year term at the University of California, Berkeley. There we engaged in impromptu conversations with individuals and groups of students on topics such as the existence of God, the reliability of Scripture, the meaning of life, and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Ministry Through Various Media and Ministries

One of my concerns at the time was the lack of good literature to help Catholics understand the Bible and salvation through Jesus alone. What was available, in my opinion, was heavy-handed, not the kind of thing that I would have considered reading when I was a Catholic. And so, in 1994, along with Bob Grant, a documentary filmmaker, I produced Catholicism: Crisis of Faith, a video documentary featuring interviews with ex-Catholics, including former priests and nuns. The film is now available for free viewing in eight languages. See on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@8languages.

In 1995, I authored The Gospel According to Rome: Comparing Catholic Tradition and the Word of God. The book is a critique of Catholic doctrine based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. See on Amazon: https://a.co/d/6AD4Tyf.

In 2005, I wrote John Calvin Goes to Berkeley, a fictionalized yet serious look at the doctrines of Calvinism through the lens of student ministry at UC Berkeley. See on Amazon: https://a.co/d/bsRohbF.

In 2013, Brady Collier, a director of the DITP, and I launched the Galilee Program, a three-week summer training for young adults, focused on inductive Bible study, discipleship, worship, and ministry. Over 300 students have completed the training. See: https://www.galileeprogram.com/.

In 2018, the directors of the DITP—Brady Collier, Steve Price, and I—established a ministry to help parents and churches prevent child sexual abuse. It's called Protect His Sheep. See: https://www.protecthissheep.com/.

Sorrow and Loss

In 2014, while we were serving at the Galilee Program, my wife Jean experienced sharp abdominal pain. A staff member, who was a physician's assistant, examined Jean and urged her to go immediately to a hospital emergency room. There a doctor examined Jean and ordered a CT scan. Two hours later, he informed us that she had an advanced case of liver cancer. We returned to California the next day.

Jean had always been in excellent health, and so the diagnosis shocked our family and church community. Everyone responded with overwhelming love and support. Jean was extraordinary throughout the ordeal, never complaining and completely at peace with God's will. Three months later, she went to be with Jesus.

Current Ministry

I continue to serve as a director of the DITP and the Galilee Program. In 2016, due to the high cost of living in California, which had made it difficult for young families to participate, we moved the DITP to Lubbock, Texas. We chose this city because several of our graduates, who were involved in church leadership in Lubbock, offered to host the training. I continue to write and have just completed a book on biblical creationism title Progressive Creation: Discover How Genesis and Science Tell One Story. It is scheduled for release in early 2026.

A Blessing from the Lord (Proverbs 18:22)

In 2022, I married Ester Monteleone, a native of Rome, Italy, and a longtime friend. We married at a venue on the historic Appian Way, the same road Paul and Luke traveled on their trip to Rome (Acts 28:11–16).

Ester is a philosopher and former postdoctoral research scholar at Roma TreUniversity. She has authored two books:

• Il Bene, l'Individuo, la Virtù: La Filosofia Morale di Iris Murdoch—The Good, the Individual, and Virtue: The Moral Philosophy of Iris Murdoch (Armando Editore, 2012)
• Donne Filosofe Ad Oxford: La Rinascita dell'Etica della Virtù—Women Philosophers at Oxford: The Rebirth of Virtue Ethics (Aracne, 2015)

When Ester's parents fell ill, she set aside her academic career to care for them. Her father, who was a Bible teacher and church planter, is now with the Lord. I am currently in Rome, helping Ester care for her mother.