CHANGED LIFE: "GOD WANTED ME TO BE A PRIEST"

By Barbara Cornick

CBN.com

Andrew Burrows came from a broken home and spent his youth abusing drugs and alcohol. He was the last candidate for the ministry…or so he thought.

Gorgeous places to visit, fun things to do, and a laid-back lifestyle — this is the Bahamas that tourists see. But for Andrew Burrows, it is not just a vacation spot; it is home. And growing up here wasn’t always as pleasant as his natural surroundings.

"When I saw and experienced how my mother struggled to raise three children on her own, it made me very angry," Andrew says. "To have that absence, to be placed in a situation where I did not have that father, where that was something that my friends did, I always wondered what it would be like to have a father."

To fill the void of an absent father, Andrew started using marijuana at a young age.

"I smoked it on a regular basis, say about three or four times a day," he says.

Andrew also abused other substances.

"I drank excessively, spent a lot of money on alcohol and getting drunk. I didn’t want to work for a living. I didn’t want to do anything positive with my life," he says.

But one night, as he lay in bed, Andrew began to think about where his choices were taking him.

"As I reflected on my life," Andrew explains, "it was like the Lord was saying to me, ‘The road you’re heading on isn’t a good one. It’s either you try to make a change, or you will destroy your life.’"

God had gotten Andrew’s attention.

"Right there and then, in my bed, I got down on my knees. I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me and help me to be a better person," he says.

Two months later, as Andrew listened to his class valedictorian speak, God challenged him to make another change in his life — one that took him completely by surprise.

Andrew recalls, "I envisioned myself dressed in vestments delivering a sermon. I believe I heard a voice say to me, ‘I want you to be My priest.’ The last thing in all my life I expected to be was a priest. When I get up to preach and I celebrate the Eucharist, or I get up in the morning, start to put on my vestments, and get dressed for work, I am, like, Is this really real? Am I really a priest?"

Andrew’s life today is vastly different from just a few years ago and a great deal more satisfying.

"I found my purpose," he says. "There’s a reason for living. Serving God in a special capacity beats anything out there in life because nothing is better than serving God and serving His people and making a positive impact on people’s lives. When you really look at it, at the end of the day, only what is done for Jesus will last."

NUMBERS DON’T LIE, ECUSA WILL BE DOWN 100,000 THIS YEAR. PLEDGING ALSO DROPS

"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife..." — 1 CORINTHIANS 5.1–8

V. Gene Robinson was installed as bishop on Sunday and today’s daily office epistle was the reading from 1 Cor.5: 1–8.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Rev. Kevin Martin, executive director of Vital Church Ministries, says the Episcopal Church will lose around 100,000 persons in the coming year.

He says the Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, Steven Charleston, is talking nonsense when he claims that the actions of General Convention will open the doors of the Episcopal Church to thousands of new people because it declares that we are an open and inclusive church.

"The Chancellor of the Episcopal Church (David Booth Beers) has it all wrong and is spinning the wrong numbers. I am most concerned about how all this will affect the 840,000 members who regularly attend and give around 70% of our stewardship," said Martin.

Martin said extreme statements by one conservative leader that ECUSA could lose 50 percent of its membership over the next few years was inaccurate. But he says the most interesting spin — and potentially most dangerous — comes from the Chancellor and represents the “official line” of 815. "The chancellor is assuring Episcopal leaders that we have lost people before over the issue of prayer book revision and women’s ordination, but the denomination 'recovered from this and went on.'"

Martin says ECUSA has not been able to demonstrate a sustainable place in society for the past 40 years, and there is no reason to believe the present situation will do anything but accentuate the decline. Turning around is not on the horizon, he says.

"Secondly, these numbers are a clear indication of ECUSA’s continuing failure. If these trends continue for just five more years, our status will be reduced to such fringe religious groups as Christian Scientists or Unitarians."

His statistics coincide with an earlier report issued by the Church Pension Group revealing that 50 percent of ECUSA’s churches have an average Sunday attendance of one to 64 people. "For some 3,465 churches the actual Sunday attendance is 37, a startlingly low number," he reported.

Most of these are mission churches being supported by the diocese, and now that the money pool is drying up (except where the diocese has large endowments), they will be out of business in the next five years.

Martin travels three weeks of every month to Episcopal churches around the country and says the crisis brought on by Robinson’s consecration still hasn’t fully hit home. He believes the national church will stonewall parochial reports on church attendance because they don’t want everyone to know how bad the situation has become.

The other truth is that young people presenting themselves for ministry who are doctrinally conservative in faith and morals will not be picked up by revisionist diocesan bishops. If they graduate from TESM and/or Nashotah House, they will not be welcome in revisionist dioceses. So revisionist bishops are cutting off the head — and they wonder why the body is dying.

Bishops like Charles Bennison (PA) and Tom Shaw (Mass) will not allow Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics to come into their dioceses because they have a gospel they regard as too narrow and uninclusive.

The Episcopal Church is clearly bent on destroying itself; no outside help is necessary.

V. Gene Robinson was officially welcomed as the first openly homosexual bishop of the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire on Sunday at St. Paul’s in Concord, NH. He succeeds Douglas Theuner. The outgoing bishop uttered the words, "may the Lord stir up in you the flame of holy charity and the power of faith that overcomes the world…" Robinson will need it. Already some 50 million Anglicans and a dozen Primates are out of communion with him and Frank Griswold. He has an uphill battle. He will not succeed.

ON CBS 60 MINUTES, Robinson tried to make his case — that he was just a normal guy and please give me a chance to prove myself. One astute observer noted Bradley posed some tough questions—but stayed with them from beginning to end—yet avoided the religious/ecclesiastical/canonical issues that lie at the bottom of this most serious controversy.

"If intense questioning on such matters had been the goal, CBS would have had to include statements by orthodox clergy, professional theologians, and psychologists," said the viewer.

"Instead, Robinson was allowed to display his considerable personal charm, his candor in describing his affliction, and his no-nonsense businesslike approach to acceptance… But most of all, it was delivered by Robinson himself in league with God. There was no mention… of illegality of action, of unbelievable arrogance, and of focused self-concern on the part of Robinson."

"What I objected to most of all is a man who wields the authority to throw out his clergy, and simultaneously the people who disagree with him, on the basis of their having failed to adhere to canon law, when he himself by his selfish actions flouted Biblical and canon law from the start," said the viewer.

Another viewer noted that Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan did not appear in the segment devoted to Robinson. The "lowlight" of the program was a videotape of Robinson and his daughters in a gay bar. The highlight was an interview of a priest who had been dismissed because he would not recognize Robinson. When asked about his oath, the priest replied that his first obligation was to Scripture and then to banish false doctrines.

Two churches, Church of the Redeemer in Rochester and St. Mark’s in Ashland, have voted to affiliate with the new Network of conservative churches, much to Robinson’s anger.

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