I decided to go along and I am very glad that I did!

Sam on his holidays.

Sam has recently joined us at Grace Church Wakefield, having moved to the area for work. He only started following Jesus relatively recently. Here he tells his story of coming to Christian faith.

"I grew up in a 'non-Christian' household. Growing up, my dad was very anti-religion and this rubbed off on me when I was younger.

The first seed of doubt that I had about my atheist beliefs concerned morality. It felt natural for me to describe certain actions and deeds as inherently good or inherently evil.

However, I found that my secular beliefs couldn't accommodate this. If I was to truly believe my world view, then morality would be subjective, everyone's moral beliefs would be equally valid, and I would have no justification in making other people abide by my own moral code.

The first seed of doubt that I had about my atheist beliefs concerned morality.

Whilst I found that a lot of the moral beliefs I held corresponded to the Christian moral beliefs (which is no coincidence), I was very hesitant to "sign-up" to being Christian.

These doubts only grew when I went to University. It got to the point where I became curious as to what being a Christian actually meant. I had been to a Church of England primary school and had listened to RE lessons where we discussed Christianity but I had a very limited knowledge of the Bible. Anyway, the university Christian Union held an events week in February 2023 where they hosted talks and discussions everyday aimed at people who were curious about Christianity. I decided to go along and I am very glad that I did!

At the events week, I met a lecturer in Theology called Neil who was also an elder [leader] at a local church. He invited me to a few drinks at the pub after the talks so that I could ask him any questions I had about Jesus, the Bible, or Christianity in general.

After that week, I was having weekly meetings with Neil where I could pepper him with questions and after many months it eventually led to discussions on what it would look if I gave my life to Christ.

A key piece of information... was realising how I desperately needed forgiveness from Christ.

A key piece of information which arose from these meetings was realising how I desperately needed forgiveness from Christ. I acknowledged that I committed sin and that I acted as if I was in control. However, having started to read my Bible and through my talks with Neil, I understood that Jesus came down to earth and took the consequences of my sin upon himself when he went to die on the cross. Jesus then said if I trusted in him as my Lord and Saviour, then I could take the results of his perfect sin-free life .

After a few months, I started to attend Neil's church, Oxford Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and I started to get involved in the wider church community. Acknowledging my personal need for forgiveness and the need for Christ in my life, I got baptised in May 2024.