I showed up at Tucson Medical Center in 1957, the screaming son of Jack and Barbara and little brother to Karen. My birth certificate says Robert Jay Kerrey.

We were a tight family—still are—but not really a religious family. Not back then. On Sundays we went to Dairy Queen, not church. Oh, when I was eight Mom had me baptized in the Mormon church because she had some Mormon relatives who had been really good to her and it seemed like the right thing to do, but it didn’t seem to take. By the time I hit puberty, I was a full-on blasphemer.

Upon graduation from Rincon High School in Tucson, I started dating this pretty girl named Cathy. Striking blue eyes. Dimpled smile. Fair cheeks dappled with freckles. As far as I could tell there was only one thing wrong with her. She was a Christian. And not just in name only, she was a follower of Jesus. So, there we were in the summer of 1975, the date-and-debate couple: Bob the Blasphemer versus Cathy the Christian. Despite our theological differences, we were crazy about each other.

Summer turned to fall and Cathy went to Biola College (a do-gooder Christian college in California) while I stayed in Tucson to attend Arizona’s first and finest university. We continued to date long distance and she gave me a Bible, which I began to read for the first time, mostly to try to discredit it because I wanted to convert her to my way of thinking.

But God has a sense of humor. In the summer of 1976, after reading about the claims of Jesus Christ in the Bible, I found myself believing, almost against my will. Dang. I didn’t really want to be associated with those obnoxious TV preachers with lime green leisure suits and white patent leather belts and shoes (still don’t).

I was the first in my family to believe in Jesus for eternal life. I am delighted that every other member of my family has since believed. God’s grace is amazing.

Cathy and I were married in 1978, in the middle of my junior year of college. She put me through school, we had two kids, Candace and Chase, and I worked in the field of marketing research for about fifteen years. We were doing great. Nice house, two cars, a motorhome, a boat, and I just got a promotion to the number-two position in my company.

So I quit. We sold all our stuff and I went to seminary to become a pastor. We burned through all our savings. I graduated magna cum laude and bank account nada. And after a three-year stint as an associate pastor, we started a new church in the cafeteria of a junior-high school with nothing but a small group of wonderfully committed people and the faint smell of school lunch.

And I love it. The church has grown. Our children have grown. Our grandchildren are now growing.

I’m not looking for a job, but here’s my resume in case you’re wondering about that kind of stuff. It’s part of who I am.

EDUCATION:

• Doctor of Ministry (in progress), Phoenix Seminary
• Master of Divinity, Western Seminary, 1995
• Postgraduate studies in statistics at Arizona State University and creative writing at Paradise Valley Community College, 1990
• Bachelor of Science, Marketing, University of Arizona, 1979

EMPLOYMENT:

• Moon Valley Bible Church
  Phoenix, Arizona
  Senior Pastor, 1997 to present
• Shiloh Community Church
  Phoenix, Arizona
  Associate Pastor, 1994 to 1997
• Bethany Bible Church
  Phoenix, Arizona
  Junior High Director, 1993 to 1994
• Western Seminary
  Phoenix, Arizona
  Student, 1992 to 1995
• Winona Market Research Bureau, Inc.
  Phoenix, Arizona
  Executive V.P., Vice President, Manager, and Project Director, 1981 to 1993
• Marketing Strategies, Inc.
  Tucson, Arizona
  Vice President, Data Analyst, 1979 to 1981

CREDENTIALS:

• Ordained by the Evangelical Free Church of America, 2001