About 30 years ago, John Mulholland entered college wanting to become a missionary. However, he and his wife became ‘disenchanted with the faith,’ and John eventually started working for Best Buy. Although he made lots of money, he felt unhappy, and his marriage almost came to an end. But he put his full focus on God, and it saved his marriage and also helped him get back into ministry. He’s now in his third year as the lead pastor at WestWay Christian Church in Scottsbluff, and he said he couldn’t be any happier trying to help make a positive difference in the lives of other people not only at WestWay but also in the community.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – After graduating from high school in Peachtree City, Georgia, in 1988, John Mulholland began taking classes at Toccoa Falls College, a Christian liberal arts school in Toccoa Falls, Georgia.
His plan was to become a missionary.
“I felt like that’s what God was calling me to do,” he said.
However, after spending two years at Toccoa Falls College, Mulholland started to have second thoughts about becoming a missionary. In fact, he started to question whether he wanted to do anything involving religion as a career.
“I met my wife, Anne, in college, and we became disenchanted with the faith,” he said. “We saw a lot of inconsistencies with how people talked about Christianity but how they didn’t act it out. A lot of people were engaged in church on a Sunday morning, but then they weren’t necessarily living a Christian life the other six days of the week. We grew sick of it, so we didn’t want to have anything to do with it.”
John and his wife ended up moving to Sioux Center, Iowa, where John started attending Dordt University, a private Christian, liberal arts school. He had no desire to continue pursuing a career as a missionary, though. Instead, he wanted to be a history teacher.
“At that point, I was still confused about the whole church thing,” he said. “The Bible college I went to in Georgia had been very strict, and the Christian college I went to in Iowa was not very strict. So, that caused a lot of concern for me. I didn’t know what to think about it. It was tough because I was 22 years old, I was married, and we had two kids, but I was a very confused person in a lot of ways. I decided to just focus on completing my degree and starting a career in teaching.”
John and his family did attend church in Iowa, but he said he was basically just going through the motions as far as his faith was concerned.
“We still went to church, but it was mostly because we felt like it was just the thing to do – not because we really wanted to go to church,” he said. “Looking back, even though we were going to church, I don’t feel like we were living the life of a Christian. We weren’t living our life for Jesus.”
You can read the entire story on Menke in the current issue of Nspire Today! magazine. A one-year subscription (12 issues) is only $15. You may sign up for a subscription by sending $15 to Nspire Today!, P.O. Box 454, Scottsbluff, NE 69363, or you may pay with a credit card by calling 308-220-8865.
Nspire Today! magazine is also available at locations listed below.
