Q. How did Calvary Chapel Roseville begin?

A. Leslie and I were in southern California and the Lord made it known to us that it was time to pioneer a church. We prayed and Sacramento was put upon our hearts. I made a couple of trips up here, rented a house and we were ready to go.

Two weeks before departure I was offered a church in Venice, CA. It was tempting being that there was an established congregation in a newly remodeled, yet debt-free building.

To move to Sacramento meant getting a tent-making job, having no building, no salary and starting with a congregation of three people (all of them related to my wife, Leslie.) However, we had faith and 18 folding plastic chairs. 
 

Q. Where were you raised, what was your ‘Before Christ’ education and what were you busy doing before you heard the Lord call you?

A. I was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. After high school, I studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute, but dropped out to work for Crawdaddy, a musician’s trade magazine based in New York.

In 1970, a couple of partners and I opened a women’s leather clothing manufacturing firm - High Moon Custom Leathers in San Francisco. Seven years and a new partnership later, I was involved in an antique store christened Another Time Another Space, also in San Francisco. It turned out to be the beginning of my career as an antique importer.

In 1981 we began manufacturing a line of antique reproduction Victorian lighting, which we later sold to Sierra Lighting of Reno, Nevada. 
 

Q. Travels: how did trekking the globe help point you to the True Living God?

A. I’ve traveled to Austria, Bahaman Islands, Belgium, Canada, Caribbean, Denmark, England, France, Hawaii, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, West Indies, Virgin Islands. Traveling is a wonderful experience, you learn about peoples and cultures, but the bottom line is all people need Jesus. The thing I came away with is the first-hand knowledge of the emptiness of the world’s values. All spiritual pursuits outside of Jesus Christ as Risen Savior are pointless and will leave you empty.