A Pastors LIFE Testimonial – Life Through a Broken Window

Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato\’s Apology) About 400 years later the apostle Paul wrote, “Examine yourself to see that you are in the faith\” (2 Corinthians 13:5) Test yourself. For Paul, the idea of being in  the faith was accompanied by the parallel truth that as regenerated men we are filled with the fullness of Christ, and as a result of this fullness there is a transformation that takes place which impacts every part of our being and the atmosphere in which we exist.
Paul was not asking us to examine the successes or failures of our lives. He was not speaking of a job evaluation, of an inventory of blessings and gifts or how well we succeeded at keeping last years resolutions. He was speaking of the presence. True faith is proven when God looks at our person and He sees the likeness of Jesus. When He breathes in our presence and smells the aroma of His Son. Even as pastor of a city church, a father of five children and a respected community leader, under this examination I would have failed the test from an outward perspective. Inwardly, by grace through faith in Christ I was a new person. Positionally I knew my destiny in Christ was sure, and I had no problem testifying to that in words. Yet, like so many other men who thought they had it together, there was a serious disconnect between what I believed about myself and what was true about me at the very core of my being. My thinking was broken and needed to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I had heard and preached and taught that truth so many times in my life, but never realized the extent to which my thinking had been corrupted and needed to be changed. I was looking at life through a broken window. If I had died in that state, the epitaph on my grave stone could have read \”Here lies Gordon Goetsch – A saved soul but a wasted life\”.
I needed the kind of thinking that could completely demolish the normalcy in a mans life. The kind of thinking that leaves no room for any personal pride or ambition. The kind of thinking that would necessitate a 180 degree change of mind and cause me to feint at the sudden realization of how desperately short of His Glory I had fallen, and how deep His grace must reach to bring me back to that place of His abiding and glorifying presence.
The way in which He would further demonstrate His love and grace towards me was to arrange a divine appointment with a couple that would become the conduit…the connector through which this transformation would come. Through a set of circumstances we were introduced by some friends to a couple from Dallas who had  a business opportunity that they wanted us to check out. Because we respected the friends and thought it might \”help them\”, we agreed .  Kirk and Nicole Porter drove 300 miles to put up with the negativity that I thought I never had, and to challenge a mental mindset that I believed was rock solid. It seemed so prosaic and pathetic at the time. They never had the degrees or experience we had, and had certainly not paid the price to be so opinionated that they could teach me any new thing. After all, I had paid my dues. I had an earned Phd in theology and hundreds of post graduate degree hours in multiple disciplines. I had many years of personal experience in ownership and management in the corporate world. I was the product of many “personal improvement” courses and was quite comfortable just “being who I was” or had become. I felt that in general I was “doing okay\”, and if I thought we needed something more, I already had what I needed to make things happen.
But that night something went right. Kirk and Nicole planted a good seed that could do nothing but germinate in a fertile mind. Somehow (the details escape me) they got me to commit and started investing their time into our lives. Systematically, over time, the old stinking thinking was chipped away and replaced by the liberating truth that was missing from my life for so long. I began to see why I had never learned the secret of true freedom. Always so busy, yet so broke. So many sermons, yet so little substance. So much activity yet so few accomplishments. So much fellowship yet so few friends. Stops and starts that came close to divorce for the first 20 years of our marriage…
It was time to go to work on myself (again) but this time I would not have to flounder around on my own in the dark trying to figure out how to get better at life. Over the next three years things changed slowly at first, and then dramatically. Not only did I get the information I needed to correct the flat spots, I also received continued support and accountability through Reading, Listening, Associating and Implementing what I had learned. I owed it to my wife and best friend I could ever have Janice, to my children and grandchildren, to my friends, to invest in myself becoming the best that I could be in every area of life. I realized I could become someone who is loved and admired by my family, friends and associates, and that I could leave a legacy of influence that would in a small way help make the world a better place.
On this journey we have been blessed to impact so many others who have been at that same place.
I can honestly say that in one year of influence by simply duplicating the course laid for us by our founders and specifically Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward, I have impacted more people for Christ and a better life than in 7 years as a pastor of a city church. Through challenging Faith resources of the AGO module, such as \”The Life of Christ\”, preaching the Good News now resonates with the unction of a fresh encounter and understanding of who Christ is! I have learned the importance of being a husband and dad first and pastor teacher second. I have found that true friendship is a priceless gift to be guarded and nurtured without compromise.
I am truly thankful to my friends Kirk and Nicole Porter for introducing Janice and me to this incredible group of world class, caring individuals, and for their support and encouragement on this journey to freedom. With LIFE, life will never be the same.