HACKETTSTOWN -- Gregory Gentry is grateful to be preaching at the church where he grew up.
"I came to Church of the Covenant through my neighbor Charles Assadourian," Gentry said. "I did not have very many friends at the time, but Chuck was kind enough to spend some time with the kid next door. He invited me to the Bible Study and eventually to church."
Gentry found a deep love shared among the people at the church, which inspired his family to join the Church of the Covenant in 1984.
He grew up listening to Senior Pastor Ron Pearce preach the gospel and grew from a child into a young man with the church. But all was not how it appeared.
"The life I was living did not add up with the things I was claiming to believe," Gentry said. "I knew all the answers in Sunday school, but I wasn't taking those answers with me beyond the doors of the church. It did not take long for me to put aside everything I had professed faith in and indulge in the things of the world. Selfishness and narcissism were the order of the day, everyday."
He thought he was fulfilling his desires, but he was really destroying all he cherished.
"All the relationships I had held so dear growing-up had been strained. I left the church completely and was estranged from my tightly knit family," he said.
After becoming estranged from his family -- and graduating from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. where he studied theater-- Gentry decided to move to New York City to pursue a career in acting.
But his reckless behavior caused him to lose the thing he most desired.
"In November of 1999 my best friend and I took a trip out west to celebrate moving on to the next stage of our lives," Gentry said. "Upon arriving home, I found a message from a lawyer representing my alma mater threatening to take my parents' home if I did not contact them immediately to settle my debt to the school. I quickly called to find that I owed far more money than I could even begin to repay. In an instant all that I had saved -- for my future in New York City -- was given away."
With the huge debt lingering, no job and no other savings, Gentry did the only thing he could, call home.
"I called my father and asked if I could come home," he said. "After hearing my plight he graciously -- joyfully -- accepted me back into his home."
There was one condition to his father's unconditional love.
"In order to return to my father's house, I had to return to My Father's House," he said.
With that Gentry came back to the church, attending both Sunday school and morning worship.
"I was so happy to be back," Gentry said. "I couldn't get enough of being in the scriptures and fellowshipping with God's people."
While he enjoyed being part of the church, he did not have the desire to become a pastor.
"I never thought someone with my past could ever be a minister," he said. "But as time went on, more and more people suggested the possibility. That encouragement -- along with other advice -- broke down my own misgivings and misunderstandings."
After speaking with God through prayer and on the advice of counselors, Gentry enrolled in Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
"It turned out to be the greatest and most difficult undertaking of my life," he said. "I never considered myself an academic -- and I still don't -- but the Lord grew me in my time there."
During his last year in the seminary, the associate pastor at Church of the Covenant was called to another post and the session asked if Gentry could help fill the pulpit when needed. Filling the pulpit turned into an internship and the internship turned into a call to be the assistant pastor.
Gentry was ordained and installed on May 18 as assistant pastor of the Church of the Covenant.
"I enjoy bringing the Word of God, faithfully to His people, in ways that that are clear and helpful," he said. "It is a great honor and joy to be able to show the people of Church of the Covenant what a tremendous savior they have in Jesus Christ. I have had a wonderful model of faithful, Godly preaching in Pastor Pearce. If the Lord uses my pulpit ministry half as effectively as He has used Ron Pearce's, I will consider that a tremendous blessing and a tribute to God's grace."