BIOGRAPHY OF REV. ALLAN E. BENDERT
In the first sermon I preached, I started by saying, “There is no one more surprised than me that I am standing here in front of you today!” I truly had a surreal feeling throughout that sermon, and I must admit there are still times that I sit back in wonder at the path that God has chosen for me. The thought of entering the ministry was not something I thought was a possibility, but as I look back at my life I can see God’s hand in things that happened to me at certain critical junctures. Ever since I can remember, I knew I wanted to be behind a microphone. My ultimate dream was to be a major league baseball announcer. I could certainly understand when the Tiger announcer once said, “Can you imagine, they pay me to watch 162 baseball games a year!” I always thought now that would be the life doing something like that. However, God had other plans. He has given me a microphone but it wasn’t exactly in the setting where I thought it would be.
I don’t think the story of my conversion to Christianity is anything out of the ordinary. Growing up I attended a Presbyterian church. I attended Sunday school as a child and when I was 12 or 13, I joined the Church. When I did, I had no idea what it meant. In fact, I probably did it because other friends that I had in the church were joining at the same time and we went in as a group. Religion and church were not something that was big in my family. My sister and brothers and I were taken to church each week but my parents did not attend. When I was in high school I had a girl friend in the church and I will admit that, at times, she was the only reason I attended. However, as I went to church, I learned things that I did not realize were impacting my life and changing me in subtle ways. I just wasn’t aware of what God had planned for me later in life. I knew that God loved me and He sacrificed His Son on the Cross for me, but I had other things that I thought were more important to pursue at the time.
When I went to college I fell away from the church. Even though I knew all the stories and that God loved me, I became selfish and self centered about how and where I used my time. I would occasionally go to church with other people but it didn’t have any real meaning for me. However, God made sure I knew that He had a special plan for me. In my sophomore year at Michigan State University, I was walking across campus pondering what I was going to do with my life. I wasn’t particularly happy at the time and things were going OK but not great. I asked God, “What am I going to do with my life”, and the answer came back, “You will preach My Word to My people!” I stopped dead in my tracks because I heard an audible voice give this answer. I looked around because I thought, “I must have heard someone else say that about their life,” but I was standing alone. I thought to myself well that was odd because at the time I wasn’t even going to church and my life certainly wasn’t exactly the model life that you would expect from a potential pastor. I decided I needed to contemplate that for awhile so I filed it away and went on with my life. After college, I spent 30 years serving in various positions in the automotive industries. But still through a very successful career, I knew that something was missing.
I would say the biggest transition in my life came during my first marriage. I had married a Catholic woman, and I tried to fit in. I am positive at that time I couldn’t articulate my entire theology of God, however, the one thing I knew for sure was it wasn’t in accord with the Catholic tradition. This probably did more to drive me away from the church but at the same time it drove me closer to God. Even though I would not go to church with her, I knew that I had a large void in my life and I had to find a way to fill it. Thus began my search for the “right religion.”
In my search, one of the first things I found was religious radio, and I began to listen to some of the evangelistic preachers that were on. While some of them struck me as completely ridiculous I also found some who through their teachings helped me make sense of the Bible for the first time. As the Bible began to make sense I knew more strongly that I had to find a place to worship and be fed. I tried a Southern Baptist church, but it wasn’t quite right for me. Even though God was finally alive in my life, there were just some teachings I couldn’t accept. I almost fell away from the church again but then I was invited to an American Baptist church and I found a home. In this church I found out why God loved me and how God loved me. I found the ways that Jesus saved me from my sins and what I should do because of it. Unfortunately my first marriage did not last but God has since brought me a very godly woman who has been my help mate and partner for over 31 years. We have had three great children and now one wonderful grandson. It was a struggle for me for a while to forgive myself for the divorce but through it all God walked with me and strengthen me as He was directing and guiding me in His plan for me.
In July of 1990, I was involved in a serious car accident. In 95% of these types of accidents the people in the car die and yet I was spared. For some unexplained reason, my car went out of control on a completely dry road on a sunny day and hit a tractor trailer head on. My car flipped end over end three times and I walked away from it with just some minor cuts and bruises and an abrasion on my neck from the seat belt. For the next four months, I struggled with why I had been spared. Finally, one night alone in my car when I felt that I was going to explode if I didn’t accept God’s calling, I accepted His call to ministry. I said, “OK God, you win, I will accept your call!” It felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my body. I went home and told Diana about it and we both knew it was right, but yet, I still couldn’t take the ultimate step and enroll in seminary. For the next ten years I tried to answer God’s call in any way possible without becoming a pastor. I did taxes, I coached baseball, I taught Sunday school, I served on a variety of boards in the church and elsewhere, I did everything I could to serve without going to seminary.
Finally in the summer of the year 2000, the minister at the church in Royal Oak, MI, asked me if I would be interested in writing a summer sermon series for him. I told him that sounded like a great challenge and I accepted the task. Then he asked me if I had ever thought about preaching. I said, “Yes, Gary, I had thought quite frequently about preaching.” So I agreed to preach two of the eight sermons in the series. This started all the old battles inside me all over again. Finally as the struggle continued during a sermon that Gary was preaching about placing your burdens on God, I said, “OK, God, if this ministry thing is real, I want a fleece experience. I want a sign so clear even I can’t deny it!” At the end of that very sermon that I prayed that prayer, a lady in the church who normally did not talk to me came out of the sanctuary and took me by the arm and said, “I have to talk to you.” She said, “Allan, those two sermons you preached this summer were two of the best sermons I have heard in this church in a long time. You must go to seminary and go into the ministry.” Well, I was stunned to say the least. “I thanked her” for the compliment and thought to myself, “God, are you kidding me?” I then talked with the minister and his comment was, “So you finally figured it out!” I also talked with other people that I knew in the church and everyone told me they thought I should pursue the idea of a call. I was so hoping that someone would tell me that I was wrong but no one did.
In January of 2001, I entered Ecumenical Theological Seminary and graduated four years later. I began my ministry as the part-time associate pastor of Bethany Baptist Church of Waterford, MI. There under the guidance of the Reverend Dr. James E. Bolin Jr. I learned what it meant to be a minster. I learned about serving and being there for the people and how to actively listen and make useful suggestions. After two years as an associate minster, I received a call to be the part-time pastor at Cherry Hill Baptist Church of Dearborn Heights, MI. I served there for two months short of six years. I ministered with that flock until this year when I accepted the call to full-time ministry at Emmanuel Community Church in Palm Harbor.
I feel God has used my entire life to prepare for this calling. He has given me the ability to be a good empathetic listener. I can articulate what people have told me and give them helpful suggestions. God has given me a true love for people and a desire to be helpful. God has also given me a thirst for His word and a true desire to share the love that shines through with everyone I meet. I consider it an honor and privilege to be called as the Pastor of Emmanuel Community Church. My goal is to grow the Kingdom of God through working with the people to reach out to the surrounding community to serve and spread the love of God.