new church life: september/october 2016
most fascinating study in college.”
He decided early on in his first term of college to pursue Theological
School. “It was within the first two weeks of my freshman year at Bryn Athyn
that I decided I wanted to study the doctrines for a living. How exactly I
would use that study wasn’t that important; I expected I’d sort it out later. I
recognized the value of the Heavenly Doctrine, that people’s lives could be
absolutely changed for the better with an awareness and acceptance of them.”
This happened in Scott Frazier’s 101 class.
The Rev. Grant Schnarr’s book, You Can Believe, “primed me to receive
New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doc trine with full and eager acceptance. I use
excerpts from his book in my teaching at the Academy today.”
What were the major influences in his choosing to become a minister?
He goes back to his roots. “I spent my youngest years as a tag-along to
a Methodist Church in South Jersey. My grandmother attended and I went
with her. I didn’t like it much because it was boring and she was on the church
financial committee which meant she would be there forever after church
helping to count money and keep the books. All the grownups sounded like
they were having a blast, but I was not, as I was the only child there, left to
amuse myself.
“When my grandmother stopped going to church I stopped going too,
and really a kind of religious apathy set in, followed by antagonism. I didn’t
like religion, I thought nothing of God, and was functionally an atheist.
“Over time, after the death of a friend in 2004, a kind of misery set in as I
got to thinking about death, and what awaits us after we die. I fondly recalled
the movie, What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams and Annabella
Sciorra, and I wished it was reality but knew it was fiction. Little did I know at
the time that the story has Swedenborgian connections.”
Through a roundabout way he became connected with a Christian youth
group in Connecticut called Musicon. “In 2005 I toured with them for a few
weeks up and down the East Coast, visiting churches and being part of their
ministry, and I was moved by the other kids' and counselors’ faith and sincerity,
and I wanted that too. The director, the Rev. Jon Colegrove, prayed with me
one night in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and that really set the wheels in
motion for a newfound acceptance of God and faith in Him and His Word.”
Back home he started attending an Episcopal Church called Christ
Church and eventually was baptized there by the Rev. Fr. Brian K. Burgess. Jon
Colegrove stood for him as his godfather, along with two family friends Mike
and Darcie Sanchez. That’s when he began to feel his life changed by faith.
“When I arrived in Bryn Athyn and read You Can Believe, when I started
New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, and when I engaged in discourse
with Scott Frazier on the doctrines of the New Church, I felt spiritually at
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