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DISCIPLE: Swift's Own Conversion Informs His Approach to Formation
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July 9, 2024This article appears in the Summer 2024 edition of the DISCIPLE newsletter. If you are not receiving DISCIPLE in your mailbox, contact the parish office at 763-497-2745 to register as a parishioner or update your contact information.
No one knows better than Bob Swift that faith is a journey. Before he became Catholic, he was an ordained minister for an Assembly of God church, a lapsed agnostic, and a practicing Lutheran. Reflecting on his path and the questions that led him to the Catholic Church, he insists there is no magic bullet to get people to believe. He strives to meet them where they are and lead them to the living God.Long Road Home
In the early 1990s, Bob Swift was a husband, a father, and a graduate of North Central Bible College working as a youth pastor in Sioux City, Iowa, with expectations of becoming his congregation’s senior pastor.
He was also a man in conflict.
“Even though I was working and preaching, internally I had some pretty profound questions that I never talked about,” Bob recalls. “For example, where does the Bible come from and how do we know it’s true? And what about the ‘missing years’ of Christianity? My denomination started in 1917 in Hot Springs, Arkansas—or, if we go with Protestantism in general, the 16th century. What was going on before that? On some level, I knew that all the different denominations were a scandal. But I think my fundamental question was around continuity of the faith and the voice of authority: Who has the final say on what scripture means and what the truth is? Is it my pastor? Me?”
Bob reached a crisis of faith and left ministry and his previous church behind. He got rid of his books, moved his family back to Minnesota, took a job with a semiconductor manufacturer, and focused on making money to support his family.
“My poor wife…Mary Beth thought she had married a minister, and now we’re not going to church at all,” he says. “I had adopted a standard agnostic viewpoint: maybe it’s God, maybe it’s aliens, who knows? We were in a spiritual desert, and I was not a happy person. The joy and meaning in my life was gone.”
The questions never left, however, leading him back to CS Lewis’s book Mere Christianity and finally, to a prayer: “God, if you’re there, help me.”
“I was grasping, but it was a real prayer,” Bob says. “Slowly, slowly, my heart began to open up. We started talking about going back to church, and we ended up going Lutheran. It was my first exposure to liturgy—even as a term—and to the word 'sacrament.' We made a huge decision to have our children baptized, our first big shift to a more traditional Christianity.”
From there, he delved into Reformation history and theology—but even in Lutheranism, it seemed to boil down to personal opinion and the views of a particular founder or pastor.
“The question of authority became very pointed then, and I began looking at the Church fathers,” he says. “Looking at those first few centuries of Christianity led, of course, to the Catholic Church.”
It wasn’t long before Bob heard the cry in his own heart for the Catholic faith. He and Mary Beth met with a priest and joined RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) in 2001. They came into the Catholic Church the following Easter.
“In 2005 I returned to ministry full-time, which was a huge step of faith financially after eight to 10 years in a higher-paying manufacturing role,” he says. “God has provided for us for nearly 20 years now, and I’m so blessed to be here in his Church!”Not a Program, but a Person
Given the long road Bob took to become Catholic, he is not surprised by people’s stories or questions and works hard to provide a variety of opportunities for people to grow in faith, from Bible studies to retreats, family faith formation to Holy Land pilgrimages.
“We can’t expect to connect with everyone in the exact same way and at the time that works best for us,” he says. “Mercy Nights are beautiful, but not everyone likes praise and worship. Bible studies appeal to some, but not others. The upcoming Catechetical Institute will be wonderful, but it’s a big commitment. I take a shotgun approach: Family of Faith, Vacation Bible School, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and RCIA are all pellets."
Diverse offerings make sense when trying to reach a diverse audience. The approach works because of what all of them have in common: Jesus.
“No matter which program or age group I’m working with, in the back of my mind, I’m presenting the living God to people,” Bob says. “God is real; he loves you and has a plan for your life, and he sent Jesus to save you from your sins. All catechesis is a presentation of the person of Jesus Christ.”
Belief in a personal God who loves us changes everything, because it means that his Word, his laws, and his Church are for our good. His plan for salvation applies to us. What could be more relevant?
“We see headlines about the rise of the ‘Nones’—those with no religious affiliation—and people departing the Church in droves,” Bob says. “But I see a different reality unfolding, too. I see people who are searching for solid ground, looking for meaning and truth, and they are finding it in traditional Christianity. They are finding God in his Church, and I’m so blessed to be a part of it.”
WANT TO HELP? Our Faith Formation staff is always looking for living witnesses, who are pursuing lives of faith and want to share it with others, to serve as sponsors, catechists, small-group leaders, and more. Contact Bob at [email protected] or 763-497-2745 ext. 215.
