Mistake leads to man's divine calling

The Rev. Mike Weber of Wheaton thought he would be a biochemist in the 1970s.

After all, he was studying microbiology at the University of Michigan, which would pave the way for a scholarship to the University of California-Davis to enter a Ph.D. program in biochemistry.

But Weber's life took a dramatic turn during his senior year in college.

The son of a blue-collar Detroit autoworker, Weber was the first one in his family to go to college.

His family wasn't particularly interested in attending religious services. They did for awhile, but Weber admits to attending Sunday school so he could get a chocolate-covered doughnut afterward.

Since his family wasn't going to church, or even looking at the Bible in their home, Weber said he came to this simple conclusion: If God wasn't important to his parents, then he must not be very important at all.

"I couldn't think of a good reason to go to any church anymore," Weber said.

So off he went to college and any thoughts of God were pushed to the back burner.

But because of a "divine mistake" when Weber was listed as a freshman instead of a senior, he was confronted with God and the gospel in the fall of his senior year.

A Campus Crusade for Christ staff member said he got Mike's name from a list he had of freshmen for a religious survey.

"I put him off, but he was very persistent," Weber said. "I finally agreed to sit down with him just to get him off my case. When he finished sharing the gospel with me, he asked me what I thought. I said, 'All I have to do is believe. It sounds too simple. Besides, if what you said is true, why is it that no one's ever told me this before?' "

Weber didn't respond to the gospel message immediately. But the staff member did give Weber his first Bible, encouraged him to read the Gospel of John, and then asked him to attend the local meeting of Campus Crusade for Christ. There, Weber found more than 100 students in attendance.

"It was the first time I ever heard people talking about God as if they knew him personally," Weber said.

"The staff member continued to meet with me, and he answered all my objections as to why Christianity couldn't be true. He was the first intelligent Christian I had ever met. He knew not only what he believed, but he also knew why he had believed him."

Weber said it took him a few weeks to evaluate the "outrageous" claims about Jesus described by his new mentor.

"He said that he (Jesus) spoke for God and was sent by God -- and the most outrageous one of all was that he claimed to be God. Then I realized that Jesus was either right or wrong, and if he was wrong, I didn't want to waste my time. If he was right, I'd be a fool not to give my life to him," Weber said.

Weber did give his life to Jesus that November in 1974.

"I prayed and asked Christ to come into my life and forgive my sins," he said.

Then he thought something monumental would happen after his prayer, "maybe a vision or some angels appearing in my room."

When he contacted his mentor, he was assured that faith is based on fact, not feeling. After Weber attended his first church service as a true believer, he saw his life change dramatically.

But he was already committed to beginning that Ph.D. program in California. After he arrived in California, he found that he was more interested in studying Scripture than he was in chemistry.

"Chemistry didn't have the punch it once did," Weber said. "My plan was to get a leave of absence, get some Bible training, return to school and then become a Christian chemistry professor on a secular campus."

Weber's faculty advisor, though not a Christian, encouraged him to go on for Bible training. He could already see that Weber wouldn't want to come back.

"I left, and they gave the scholarship to a more worthy student," Weber added.

So Weber ended up at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, where he graduated in 1981 with a master of theology degree.

Now, 26 years later, he was installed as Wheaton Evangelical Free Church's new senior pastor Oct. 28.

"One of the reasons I'm so passionate about discipleship in the church is because I benefited so much from discipleship myself," Weber said.

"My goal is to see this church equip disciples -- baptized Christians who have decided to arrange their lives in order to become more and more like Jesus and to obey everything he commanded."

If you go

What:Wheaton Evangelical Free Church holds services at 9 and 10:45 a.m. Sundays at 520 E. Roosevelt Road, Wheaton. For details, visit www.wefc.org or call (630) 668-6490.