John Johnson, O.C.

I was destined to be a minister; my parents, their friends and the churches that I grew up in; all knew that I would be a "preacher". Deep in my heart, I knew it too. The call to ministry has been there since I can remember; I spent most of my life alternately:

• Ignoring it
• Hiding from it
• Flirting with it

My father was, and is, a Freewill Baptist minister. I was raised in the very conservative atmosphere of that church, with the thought, always there, that I would follow in my father's footsteps. I started at a young age: speaking, singing and teaching in my father's churches, everyone was impressed, I was on the path. That would have been where I ended up, but I started questioning my religion. There are many wonderful people who live life as Freewill Baptists and that religion works for them; but for me it just didn't work. I could not reconcile my personal experience of God with the version of God that belongs to mainstream Christianity.

After several years away from organized religion I fell into a United Methodist church and loved the more liberal approach. I became a lay-speaker, I taught adult Sunday School classes, I sang in the choirs. My first wife entered the seminary to become ordained, in the UM church, so once again I was a member of the pastor's family.

After the breakup of my first marriage; Cyndi and I got together, we joked that our marriage contract would have a clause that stated, "If either party decides to become a minister, the marriage is null and void and the other party shall receive all marital assets." We were both going to hide from our calling.

A few more years of attending UM churches and I realized that no form of Christianity was going to work as my sole source for my spiritual needs; there were just too many things that didn't make sense to me. I had heard of a "new" type of church, new to me, Unitarian Universalist. As organized, hierarchical, religions go, UU was pretty good and almost gave me what I needed. The UU church does not tend to get bogged down in dogma, they feel that everyone is valued and should make their own decisions about how to relate to God.

I started reading about earth-based/native religions, I read about Shamanic religions; I realized that I had serious leanings toward these types of religions. I like that spiritual fulfillment is based on personal experience, not the specific teachings of the hierarchy. And now, so that we don't have to void our marriage contract over the "Minister Clause"; I too got my ordination papers through the First Nation Church. I can finally fulfill my destiny, I am just taking a much different path than the one my parents planned.

Tree of Life Celebrations is my opportunity to minister to and with others; all of us learning about where we have been, where we are and where we are going.