From Pews to Peace

A Former Pastor’s Journey from the Pulpit to Business to Inner Truth

Back in the late 90s I was hired as a territory manager for a large national photography corporation that specialized in producing membership pictorial directories and family portraits for churches and synagogues. My territory covered Eastern PA, South Jersey and Delaware (and for a brief time, the New York City metro area). Years later, I started my own church directory LLC in the same market area.

One of the reasons I was hired was due to my background as a pastor and before that, as a realtor and insurance agent. The two professions were a perfect match for the church directory market.

During my long career in that industry, I produced directories for over 600 churches and synagogues (and a few other membership organizations). I worked with just about every denomination from Roman Catholic to Fundamentalist Baptist churches.

The first few years were exciting. It was not unusual to photograph several hundred families and/or single people at a church or synagogue. The most my team ever photographed was a mega-church in the suburbs of Philly. We photographed well over 1,000 families. That constitutes about three or four thousand people from that particular church.

As the years went by, the turnout for family portraits dwindled each year. I was surprisingly told by several pastors; they no longer wanted to do family directories because it had a negative effect on their ministry. Their families could see from past directories that the church was shrinking. Some parishioners blame the pastor for losing members. I must admit that during my years as a pastor, I would worry about the same thing because we were expected to bring in new members.

By my final year producing family pictorial directories, the churches that were repeat customers every 4 or 5 years, saw less than half the membership pictured from their initial directory. Many of my church accounts were repeat customers, so it was disheartening to see the drop in membership.

I came to realize that my industry was a fairly accurate census for active church participation in America.

I would spend my days traveling throughout a large territory, visiting with pastors and church officials in an attempt to maintain relationships in hopes of future business. During my hours on the road, I had plenty of time to reflect on the condition of the church in America and even more importantly, the surprising change in spiritual beliefs in our country.

My own hiatus from organized religion eventually became my exodus into spiritual oblivion. When I would speak with pastors, deep down I wanted to say, get out now, the ship is sinking, but that would be bad for business, if you get my drift.

Since leaving the directory industry a few years ago, church membership has continued to decline. There is an increase in mega-churches, but overall church participation is dwindling.

But, on a positive note, spiritual awakening is on the rise. And I am no longer wandering in the spiritual desert.

There are many reasons for my own awakening, which is for another article. Suffice it to say, I am blessed with a wife and spiritual partner who has grown with me on the path to peace and understanding. And after many years without a spiritual support network, I have found a loving community that is on the same journey and shares the same higher calling that I have come to realize through “A Course in Miracles.”

For people who have left or are thinking of leaving the church and are wandering in a spiritual desert as I was, there are alternatives.

So, I would like to introduce you to A Course in Miracles as a lighthouse for those adrift. I am not saying that A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is the best alternative. It will resonate with some spiritual seekers disillusioned by institutional religion. It works for me, but it’s not for everyone.

This is from the Introduction to the “Complete and Annotated Edition” otherwise known as the CE edition of ACIM:

“A Course in Miracles has become a contemporary spiritual classic. It stands by itself, not part of any larger tradition and with no centralized movement behind it. The strength of its popularity can in large part be attributed to one reason: the power, beauty, and wisdom of its words. Since it was originally published in 1976, readers have recognized in those words truths that they had never heard before, yet somewhere inside seemed to have always known. As a result, those words have inspired profound and lifelong devotion in thousands of students around the world. At the heart of that devotion is the belief that those words came from beyond the human level.”

The Course was scribed by Helen Schucman, a clinical psychologist and professor of medical psychology at Columbia University in New York City. They were received by her through an inner dictation,

“perhaps from the very place they claimed to have come; from the mind of Jesus.”
[CE [Front-3:1]-[Front-3.2]]

Here are some passages from the text of ACIM that spoke to me when I was searching for a spiritual path that I could follow.

“Revelation unites you directly with God. ²Miracles unite you directly with others. ³Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there. ⁴This is essential, because consciousness is the state which produces action, though it does not inspire it. ⁵You are free to believe what you choose. ⁶What you do attests to what you believe”. [CE T-1.28.6]

This passage speaks to seekers who no longer find inspiration in doctrine but yearn for a direct connection—with God and with others. It introduces the Course's radical idea: spiritual experience is not mediated by hierarchy or ritual. It’s personal, inward, and universal.

There is no peace except the peace of God.
²Let me not wander from the way of peace, for I am lost on other roads than this. ³But let me follow Him Who leads me home, and peace is certain as the love of God.
⁴I am not a body. ⁵I am free. ⁶For I am still as God created me.

[CE W-220.1]

This was reassuring when I felt anxious or empty after leaving organized religion. It offers a profound promise: not just belief, but peace. And not just peace, but joy.

Final Thoughts:

I’m not here to convince anyone to trade one belief system for another. The truth is, we’re all just trying to find our way home—to something real, something loving, something that doesn’t demand we check our doubts or our brains at the door. For me, A Course in Miracles offers a language of love instead of fear, inclusion instead of division, and inner guidance instead of outer judgment. Maybe the church pew has grown cold for some of us, but the seat of the soul is still warm, and there’s always room on the bench for one more. Just don’t expect coffee and donuts after the service—unless you bring them.