Growing up in a seaside town in western England, he attended the Anglican Church with his parents. He was a regular at Sunday School, learning all the Bible stories and songs.
In college, he attended a church that focused on social causes but still had little to do with the true gospel. Liberal, leftist scientific philosophies appealed to Gordon—Marx and Darwin had become his heroes.
Gordon later married and moved to New Zealand. Church attendance was hit or miss, but a crisis in his life in 1997 broke him off from church altogether.
In the meantime, Gordon’s son Martin formed a friendship with Lori Brammer, daughter of missionaries Art and Deb Brammer. Martin started attending the Independent Baptist Church of Invercargill, where Art pastored. After Martin got saved, Gordon started attending services and began a Bible study with Art.
A fundamental church was the last place Gordon expected to go, considering his church background and his liberal philosophies. But as he studied the Gospel of John with Art, John 3:16 caught his attention. Gordon had never had the salvation message placed in such sharp focus with the offer of an “ultimate free gift.” He thought, “Who would turn it down?”
Gordon didn’t, and he received Christ as his Savior. Since then, he’s come to understand that God’s free gift does take some living up to and that he has a long way to go, but it is worth it all to know Christ and to grow more like Him.