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Conversion Story of George Griffin

Church was a very present part of my life from as long as I can remember.
Born to older parents (Dad was 48 and Mom 38 at my birth) in a rural and active farming environment, in a community that was dominated by my extended family and in a Methodist Church that was operated and controlled by that extended family gives the picture of my early environment. To give a bit more detail the effect of this environment on me was strengthened by the fact that I was the last grand child born to one of the founders of our local Methodist Church and my Mom and Dad had the nerve to name me after this family patriarch, which no one had done previously. In 1946 less than two years after my birth the death of my grandmother freed my parents to move out to build a new home out near the dirt road where electricity was available. It was just the three of us most of the time as my mother had lost three children at early ages and my surviving sister had married young. On weekends the house was full with my sister, brother in law and my three nieces who were more like sisters to me. That weekend time centered around attending church and a big Sunday dinner.

Until I went to college it never even occurred to me to miss Church. Attendance for our family and most of my extended family was mandatory. My mother taught the “Beginner Class” for 35 years and much of my early knowledge of teaching came from her. She was a great story teller and was Aunt Nellie Mae to the world or so it seemed to me. My Dad worked literally from dawn to dusk for six days a week until his health failed when I was about ten. As long as he could he struggled for years to go to church with us. He was a strong influence on me because he was respected in the community and because I felt I had to please him and my mother due to being the only surviving son and due to the early marriage of my sister. His religious influence was mainly to show how dedicated he was to his faith and to give me an extremely tolerant view of other denominations. He believed that all who worshipped were on “different paths to the same goal.” Therefore I grew up thinking that all Christian Denominations were okay. The Catholic Church was not even acknowledged and I do not remember ever meeting a Catholic except my first cousin, Ida, who lived in Texas and was hardly ever around. However, somehow, after I became an adult I came to believe that the Catholics were out of whack in their beliefs.
I along with most of my cousins was baptized and confirmed in our family chapel type of Methodist Church. We received a sort of “getting saved” type of Methodism that I later found to be contrary to Wesleyan Theology.

When high school was over I chose the local Land Grant University because of my agricultural background and experiences with this university through 4H and FFA activities. Part of attending was to be in the full time Corps of Cadets. I was anything but ready for this regimentation and felt like I would collapse during the first three months. My father’s parting admonition, “If you flunk out come on back home but if you quit do not come home,” made me stick it out. To escape I went to the Wesley Foundation which had an environment in which for a few hours each week I was allowed to be a person instead of “Rat Griffin.” During that time I started to feel a call into ministry which I interpreted to be as some kind of agricultural missionary.

After I survived my “Rat Year” I became very involved in two national honorary fraternities, studies, and the Corps. My time at the Wesley Foundation and at church started to lessen. However, when I was home on breaks the rule remained to always be at our family chapel Methodist Church on Sunday morning and I was obedient. Somehow my interest in helping people through Christian ministry was transformed into a more sectarian and simply humanitarian desire to be a teacher.

My Father’s health deteriorated during my college years and pushed by this and conditioning from my childhood environment I began to push myself to find the right girl and become engaged. When my father died and I participated in the preparations and the funeral I seemed to be driven toward marriage to the most available person who was the one that I had been engaged to most recently. This marriage would be my stumbling block or excuse for not entering full time ministry when I was in my thirties. When our daughter was born in 1970 we brought her back to the family Methodist chapel to be baptized by my first cousin who was an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.

During the next few years I taught for two years, completed a Masters Degree and met my obligation to the US Army. During the early years of my marriage we attended Methodist Churches but never became very involved. When I was transferred to Colorado I met with a charismatic group during lunch time composed of non-Catholics under the local chaplain who was Presbyterian. Through that group I also experienced the Full Gospel Business Men’s Organization. Some of the so called miracles seemed to be very questionable to me and this began to turn me away from charismatics in general. A strong influence on my spiritual development while in Colorado was attendance of a very large church. First United Methodist in Colorado Springs had 7000 members, seven ordained elders as pastors and was lead by Larry Lacour, a very impressive speaker and personality. Also I came under the influence of Bob Tutlle, the Associate Pastor for Evangelism, who was also a charismatic. I was overwhelmed with the bigness, the activity, and the small group Bible study that my wife and I joined. I got really excited over this church and was an every Sunday and some week nights attendee. We felt accepted and included even though it was big. In that little study group, I again felt this tugging toward ministry of some kind. Unfortunately, during that time, I agreed to have a vasectomy because my wife was fearful of having more children and pressured me in that direction. That decision was within the bounds of Methodist teachings but brought regret to me the rest of my life because I had let down my parents by not fathering a child to carry on the family name and later a feeling that I had done something very wrong. When I mentioned my yearnings toward ministry, my wife opposed it adamantly and said, “I did not marry a minister.”

In 1973 we decided that it would be better for raising our daughter to leave the Army. We moved to Bedford, Virginia about three hours west of my childhood home. I came to Bedford because I was offered the opportunity to be a 4-H Agent under USDA and my alma mater. It was an attempt to fulfill my desire to do missionary work by doing secular humanitarian work.

However, when I went to the local Methodist church I hit it off with the Pastor,. His kids were in 4-H and we worked together in many ways. From him, I learned that commitment to Christ comes with a price. Carl spent much time publicly with the poor, doing marriage counseling for folks whether they belonged to our church or not, and encouraging services that included African Americans. When Carl invited the black mayor of Roanoke to do a service on a Sunday afternoon it was more than the older members could stand. I remember that night that the Pastor Parish Committee voted 5 to 3 to ask for Carl to be removed by the Bishop and the Cabinet. I was one of the three younger members of that committee to vote for his retention. For many years I wanted no part of that committee.

Ten years or more later, I was in the middle of another controversy.This controversy occurred after I left 4-H Work out of a desire to make more money in sales and to be in an occupation more pleasing to my wife. During this time period we met a couple who introduced us to a retreat at Lake Junaluska in Western North Carolina. My friend Paul and I both spent many hours talking about our call into ministry which bore immediate fruit as Sunday School teachers together and many years later would find both of us in churches as local pastors. Again I did not follow my call because of objections from my wife. She was the obstacle but also my excuse.

At the local Chrysler dealership I rapidly advanced until I was the General Manger. During this second controversy I was part of the power group and lead the way for the removal of an older pastor who I thought was lazy. During my years in the automobile business I became very arrogant, judgmental, and fundamental in my spiritual life. I began to gain power and prestige, and to enjoy what these gave to me. Towards the end of this time, I was working six and one half days a week, only taking off long enough on Sundays to attend church and eat dinner with my wife and daughter. Ever so gradually I had traded my desire to help people, which evolved from my desire to be a missionary, with a desire for more and more power, money, and prestige.

The old saying is “Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts,” and this was the case with me. In my arrogance, use of power, and in my prestigious position, opportunity came attracted by that image. I gave in to temptation and my life came unglued. I sought a divorce and for a time lived a very immoral life. My fall opened me up over time to being a much less judgmental person, and a person who was again seeking to fill that spot that wanted to be in ministry. (Currently a request to the diocese for invalidation of that marriage is in progress.)
I returned to my childhood home, and started a renewal in my life. There were some serious slips along the way but back in my home church I found ministry as a Sunday School teacher, lay leader, and eventually filled the pulpit in the absence of the Pastor. I also eventually married, in the Methodist Church, my Mary (a former Catholic) who has become my closest friend and a sounding board. I became very repentant about my immoral behavior and sought God’s forgiveness. When my Pastor, District Superintendent, and Mary all asked me the same question without consulting each other I really felt the renewal of the call. Each asked, “Have you thought about becoming a Pastor?” Up to this point in my life I had no connection or desire for any contact with the Catholic Church. Near the same time I began to go through the Methodist “hoops” to discern if I was really being called, I also began attending, on Thrusdays, Mass at a local Catholic Church. Mary had joined the United Methodist Church but was drawn back to the Catholic Church. I went with her but this church was very non-traditional. The priest allowed me to receive the Eucharist knowing that I was a United Methodist. When I was appointed to a Methodist Congregation I agreed to stop attending Mass. At that time I really did not feel that I was heading toward the Catholic Church. In fact, Mary points out that I was negative at that time concerning the authority of the Pope, the Real Presence, and about Marian devotion. Mary, also, had assimilated into the Methodist church especially liking the Bible study opportunities which had been lacking in her Catholic background.

Becoming a Part Time Local Pastor opened the door for me to learning about the Church.
An early course at Wesley Seminary’s Course of Study for local pastors on Wesleyan theology gave me confirmation of what would be a cornerstone of my ministry. This is the belief in progressive salvation as directly opposed to “once saved always saved.” Later during my constant movement toward the Catholic Church I heard Father Corapi quote this same belief from the Catechism. Later a course on Early Church History opened the door to the Early Church Fathers which grabbed both Mary and I. When a wife of one of our parishioners who is Catholic introduced us to EWTN I soaked up Marcus Grodi, Father Groeschel, Father Corapi, Mother Angelica and more. This lead to reading Jesus, Peter, and the Keys; Rome Sweet Home, and How Firm a Foundation. These lead to purchasing Jurgens’ three volume set on the Early Fathers. My own sermon and Sunday School preparation was also consistent for the most part with what I was learning about the Church built on the Rock of Peter. In 2004 the Methodist General Conference adopted a document entitled The Holy Mystery, which opened up my mind to the Real Presence in the Eucharist and allowed me to take in this truth from reading and from listening to EWTN. Mary was reading as I was, many times ahead of me, and she was also sliding back to the Church as a Revert. Mary had worked at the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in the 80’s and I asked her to teach me the chaplet. It became my way of constant prayer at my secular job and at other times. When I read in Rome Sweet Home that praying the Rosary meant one was practically Catholic, I had already begun to desire to learn the Rosary.

At the same time I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the United Methodist Church where every pastor seemed to be teaching something different. Some taught the Real Presence, some Symbolic Presence. Some taught pro-life but most were pro-abortion. The Bishops and most visible Elders seemed to be pro-gay marriage, and at the 2004 General Conference there was almost a riot by gays protesting the Methodist church refusing to alter wording in the discipline that indicated “Homosexuality to be not consistent with Christian Teaching.” There was much talk that this demonstration was with Episcopal permission. Also Lay People were voting on issues at Annual Conferences and at the General Conference that were doctrinal and I felt should be decided by Clergy. However, I was not pleased with the views of much of the clergy. Lack of authority was frustrating me greatly.

In my own congregation in compliance with the 2004 General Conference and knowledge gained from reading and EWTN I had initiated every Sunday Communion. People were resisting the change which had been clearly, in my mind, advocated by the General Conference, in The Holy Mystery, practiced by John and Charles Wesley, and consistent with both Scripture and Tradition. . Many pastors were just refusing to do every Sunday communion. Some of my folks would not come to Communion on any Sunday except First Sunday, because they believed more than once a month to be Catholic. Some even wanted to go back to quarterly Communion. I got no effective authoritarian support from the Conference or the District. In fact, once I was appointed I was allowed to teach whatever I wanted with no quality control except a once a year meeting with the District Committee on Ordained Ministry. This again flew in the face of my need for authority on which to stand as a pastor.

At the mid-point of my sixth year in ministry I experienced a vicious attack on myself and on my wife. This was not related to any doctrinal teachings or any immoral behaviors but instead on such things as discussing having a glass of wine with a meal, and the leadership my wife was providing in the financial management of the church. One third of my congregation left. By September of my seventh year new people were filling the gaps but an Elder presiding in place of the District Superintendent had dropped a bomb on all my Real Presence Teachings. In September of 2007 I began attending weekly and Saturday Masses again, this time in a more traditional Catholic Church. I came to see that the Real Presence was only supposed to happen when administered by a priest under Holy Orders. This caused me some problems later as I felt uncomfortable administering the Blessed Sacrament as a Methodist Pastor. However, through my wife, Mary, the Holy Spirit facilitated at least one mystical Real Presence experience in our Methodist Church. After a Communion Service I found my wife kneeling in front of the bread that I believed to have been consecrated! I walked in quietly and sat down behind her and stayed for about15 minutes. She then turned to me and explained that she had felt heat from this consecrated loaf and recognized the Real Presence. This experience would help both of us in our Journey to the Catholic Church. Jesus also spoke to my Mary saying, “Do not look for the easy way.”

In October of 2007, Mary and I had our first vacation in seven years. We prayed on this trip and decided to visit the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy. On this trip I also had a one on one with Bob Digan and with Maureen Digan. I had become devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the apparitions of Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe, and the stigmata and experiences of Padre Pio had fascinated me, but in the Digans I found some right now miracles. Also in the Chapel of Divine Mercy I had a continuous experience over four days that confirmed my belief that I had to become Roman Catholic. On the night I spent with first Bob and then Bob and Maureen and my wife, I traveled with Bob to an RCIA class and in that class I found people who were seeking the truth and people who were open to the miraculous, specifically on that evening the visions at Medugorje. Ivan had been present recently and they were on fire. I compared that to most of the Methodist Churches I had experienced where the last miracle occurred in Acts and the people even doubted those miracles. Then Bob took me back to his home where my wife, Mary and Maureen were visiting. I sat on the sofa with Maureen and face to face I heard every the important details leading up to Saint Faustina’s beatification miracle and the details of the miracle , itself. I heard how Maureen, a somewhat skeptical Catholic had participated in a Novena that ended at Faustina’s tomb. I heard Maureen say that in a skeptical way she said finally, “Okay Faustina if you are going to do something, do it now! I heard how immediately Maureen’s remaining leg was healed and how for eleven days Maureen hid the miracle out of skepticism. The miracle happened to the skeptic! It happened in 1981. A miracle healing also occurred to her son Bobby at the same time enabling this disabled child to communicate effectively for the first time. Suddenly Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe were very, very real. Padre Pio’s stigmata and his appearances in more than one place at the same time became very, very real! Then the four days in the chapel with Faustina’s relic, the beautiful statues of the 12 Apostles, the chapel to Blessed Stanislaus, the chapel with Blessed George, and Blessed Anthony, the daily Mass, the Rosary, the Chaplet all helped bring it together, The Lourdes Grotto, and Holy Spirit speaking to me brought it all together It was clear, I had to leave my ministry, forfeit the retirment privileges of a Local Pastor, be ridiculed and become a Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church was clearly to me the one church Jesus prayed for in John 17, the Church Jesus established on the rock that is Peter. The Pope as Peter’s successor had the legitimate authority with the successors to the other apostles, the bishops to be infallible in doctrine. My days of wishy washy doctrine were over and I was ready to go home to the Catholic Church.

My last day at the Shrine of the Divine Mercy after the Mass, the Rosary, and the Chaplet were over, after my wife left to go to the gift shop I lingered. I knew that I was standing on Holy Ground. Finally my Mary came looking for me and when I saw her I got off my knees and walked toward the side door. I stopped at the door and tears rolled down my cheeks. In my heart I was completely Catholic! On returning home I made an appointment with my District Superintendent. I told him that I was a Catholic in my heart. He never argued or protested. Somehow he knew that my conviction was real. He asked me to fulfill my commitment until the normal rotation time.( July 1st) I agreed. The Holy Spirit was present. We decided to only announce my retirement in January and to hold off on revealing the conversion until my last sermon if possible because of great prejudice towards Catholics in the Church I was serving.

The next nine months were interesting and challenging. The Holy Spirit, in addition to the day the real presence was in the bread left after my feeble consecration, had another miracle. Beginning in October we attended every Wednesday Mass and Saturday Mass at Saint Mary’s of the Presentation in Suffolk, Virginia. On Wednesday nights I was at choir practice at my Methodist Church in Suffolk. On Sunday I taught Sunday School, conducted the service, and administered Holy Communion, with some trepidation and on other days I did hospital visits. I went to my secular job four days a week. In all this activity, in the same city no one on the Methodist side ever knew that I was attending the Catholic Church save one, who kept it to herself. The Holy Spirit had given me the gift of being a seeker in the Catholic Church simultaneously with serving a Methodist Congregation. Even my wife’s reversion in October was blocked from the knowledge of our Methodist congregation by the Holy Spirit. The week day congregation at Saint Mary’s took us to their hearts and loved us and prayed for us. They even carried our cause to Medjugorje. We were totally accepted and held up by their faith that eventually I would be in the Church established on the Rock that is Peter. They let us pray the Rosary and Chaplet after each Mass with them! We felt encircled and protected by their prayers and Christian love.

On June 29, 2008 the last day as a Methodist Pastor and the Wife of a Pastor came. In that sermon my Mary read the scriptures from Matthew 16, Isaiah 22, John 6, 1st Corinthians 11, and 2nd Thessalonians 2:15. My sermon was entitled “Something More” and using the scriptures which had been used throughout the previous nine months I laid out my case for becoming a Catholic, holding the announcement until the end of the sermon. At the end my wife said that you could have heard a pin drop. One parishioner stomped out in anger. Another would not speak to us. Most were tolerant and accepting but not in agreement. After a long time of good byes and turning in our keys to the couple that are Catholic and Methodist my Mary and I left our church of seven years and drove to Saint Mary’s where the Lord Jesus, himself was waiting in the Monstrance. We had adoration and benediction with those who had carried us on their shoulders of faith. (Sermon available on audio tape and manuscript)

From June 29 to July 18 came a wonderful time and a stressful time. Because I was a baptized Christian and had been catechized by my Methodist studies and experiences, these had been adjusted by Catholic studies and EWTN, and I had attended Mass and prayed the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet for nine months, my wife and the week day group felt I could be confirmed without waiting for RCIA in the Fall and a much later Confirmation. Initially our Priest, who is the best, thought that too, but then the Diocese felt I should wait. The week day group went to work on their knees. Miraculously, on July 13 Father Piotr told me it was all set. First confession would be on Wednesday and Confirmation on Friday. Confession was a major event for me. I mean confessing after 63 years was quite a job! I felt a way I cannot explain after absolution! The cleaning up of my soul continued on for days after the confession! On July 18, 2008 I became officially a Catholic and received the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus!

The week day Mass group organized a reception following the Mass including a cake, cards, and gifts. I was finally at home! Now I am just trying to be what the Holy Spirit is leading me to be! Whatever the Spirit has in mind is what I want to do.

George Griffin, former United Methodist Licensed Local Pastor.