Pastor Jim is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute (’84), Cedarville University (BA ’85) and Grace Theological Seminary (M-Div ’89). He has been ministering as our Senior Pastor since January 2003. He serves along with his wife, Karen, and their four children.
He is a member of IFCA International.
Email Pastor Jim at: PastorJim@HuntersCreekChurch.org
Pastor Jim’s Personal Testimony
I was lost and without Christ for the first eighteen years of my life. I was raised by my parents with one brother near Cleveland, OH under the instruction of a Roman Catholic Church where I was taught how to be religious and earn my way to heaven. In high school I was consumed with a passion to play guitar and write music for the rock band I helped form. I spent many hours practicing and had great dreams of building my future as a musician.
God used many things to draw me to Himself. My involvement with the Roman Catholic Church cultivated some interest in God and spiritual things. Reading a Bible and a Gospel tract that were given to me raised many questions in my mind. Watching movies about the life of Christ and the Ten Commandments, and narrowly escaping a potentially serious car accident were also used of God to draw me to Him. By the time I graduated from high school I had a growing sense that there was more to life than just living for my music and myself. Just weeks before I was saved I wrote a song that was filled with questions about the meaning of life.
I can clearly remember the day I came to trust in Christ as my only way to heaven. In October of 1980 the other guitarist in my band began begging me to go with him to meet someone in Cleveland. On Saturday, October 18, 1980, I boarded a bus with my friend and headed downtown. When we arrived, he introduced me to some people who were preaching on a street corner using sketched drawings of John 3. My friend and one of the street evangelists took me into a nearby Wendy’s restaurant to explain the Gospel and saving faith in Christ. Right there in that Wendy’s restaurant I bowed my head and told God that I knew I was a sinner and that I deserved the penalty of death. I thanked Him for sending Christ to die in my place. I told God that I was now trusting in Christ alone as my only way to heaven. Immediately after I prayed I sensed that I was a new creation in Christ and that I possessed eternal life. I felt clean and free from the guilt of sin like never before and sensed that I was born again as a child of God. I experienced an overwhelming sense of joy in the realization that I had finally found what was missing in my life. Looking up after praying and seeing a Roman Catholic nun seated nearby drove home to my heart the realization that I was no longer involved in an empty religion, but a personal relationship with the living God.
The way I thought and lived began to change after trusting Christ as my only way to heaven. In the days ahead I began memorizing verses like John 3:16 and John 5:24 which gave me assurance of salvation. Within the next week I broke the news to my best friend that I could no longer be a member of our rock band because of my new relationship with God. My friend was crushed and heartbroken, but I knew that the direction our band was heading was not what God would want. I stopped listening to and writing the music of the world and began listening to and writing music that glorified the Lord. I stopped my worldly partying and began spending a lot of time feeding on the Word of God. I left the Roman Catholic Church and began using the Scriptures as a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I craved Bible study, fellowship and worship with other believers and began to share the Gospel with friends and family. I got involved with a good Bible teaching church and as much ministry as I possible could. I had the privilege of helping to lead my mother to saving faith in Christ a few months after I was saved and my father to saving faith in Christ about eight years later.
It wasn’t long before I began sensing a call to the ministry. Early on I determined that I wanted to invest my life in things that last forever – people and the Word Of God. By late Spring of 1981 I had determined to attend Bible college to learn more about God, His Word and His plan for my life. In the Fall of 1981 I found myself in the heart of Chicago learning and growing spiritually at Moody Bible Institute. During my college and seminary years I experienced much growth and maturing in Christ as God taught me many things about Himself, the Scriptures, ministry and Christian living.
God has blessed me with a wonderful wife who was raised in a Christian home and four children who have all come to faith in Christ and who show evidence of it in their life. My wife is my helpmate and companion. Together we seek to faithfully honor the Lord in our ministries and in training up our children in the way they should go. My wife and children fully support my calling as a pastor. Karen and I both place a high priority on our marriage and family life. We are grateful that the Lord has placed in our hearts a vision for bringing our children up to godly maturity through the discipline and instruction of the Lord and that this vision includes home schooling. We are committed to schooling our children at home as long as the Lord enables with a focus on character training and learning God’s Word. We are also committed to sharing our vision for growing children who are warriors for Christ with others through modeling and teaching.
The Lord gave me the privilege and joy of ministering to teens and their families as an associate pastor at Merriam Christian Chapel in Albion, IN, from September of 1988 through January of 2003. In 1999 my title was changed from Youth Pastor to Associate Pastor of Youth and Family Ministry in order to reflect my burden and vision for strengthening families and equipping parents to bring their children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. During those latter years I spent much more time ministering to parents and equipping men to be servant leaders who persevere in godliness. Serving at Merriam Christian Chapel was a very positive experience in which I enjoyed tremendous unity and learned much that I am now using in ministry here at Hunters Creek Community Church.
I’m very grateful that the Lord drew me out of an empty religion and the empty ways of this world to give me eternal life and the privilege of shepherding the flock of God here at Hunters Creek Community Church. I know that God has led me here to serve as Senior Pastor-Teacher and rejoice in all that He is doing in our midst. As a pastor-teacher I am committed to placing a priority on prayer and the ministry of the Word just as the apostles did in Acts 6. I am also committed to walking according to the Spirit as an obedient disciple of Christ who passionately pursues God and joyous pleasure in Him. I long to be continually led by the Spirit and a faithful steward of all that He has entrusted to me.
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
James M. Lorch
