I am the Missouri Conference

News May 31, 2014

By Fred Koenig

Rob King can articulate his faith story clearly. It started in line at the drive-up window at the bank. The car in front of him had a bumper sticker that said 107.9, so he tuned to it. It was the local Christian radio station. He started listening to well known nationally syndicated Christian radio shows, like Focus on the Family and The Bible Answer Man.

“The topics they were preaching on made sense to me,” King said.
As King warmed to the idea of what it means to be a Christian, his wife’s family invited them to a bring a friend to church Sunday at Trinity UMC in Brookfield. It was the beginning of a four-part sermon series that lead King to a new way of thinking.

“The messages revealed who God is, that God is not looking for us to be more religious, he is looking for relationship,” he said. Later when listening to the radio, he heard Chuck Swindoll preaching about Barabbas, and how Barabbas must have been so scared, and then relieved when Christ took his place on the cross, and how Christ took the place of all of us.

“At that moment I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, and I haven’t been the same sense,” King said. King said it’s easy to get the wrong impression about church. He had previously been turned off to the idea of going to church, because he knew people who viewed it as an obligation.
“It’s not a duty that you have to go do, worship is a privilege that you get to experience,” he said.

King’s faith was contagious. His whole family was baptized in a pond on his father’s farm, which has been in the family nearly 150 years. As a member of Trinity UMC, he has taken Disciple Bible classes, taken part in lay leader retreats, and has done some pulpit supply.

King went to work at his parent’s meat processing shop in Marceline, King’s Processing, in 1982. He and his wife bought the business in 2003. When you go in there today, you’ll hear the Christian station on the radio, see religious pamphlets on the counter, and see scripture on the wall.
“I try to be a faithful steward,” he said.