Brian’s Story
On August 22, 1981, I married this wonderful woman, Karen, who has consistently blessed and changed my life and days. We are in love even more with the years. We have four daughters, two sons by marriage, a third son by marriage is coming this May, and we enjoy six delightful, wonderful grandchildren. Two of our kids and the almost son-in-law live locally, so we enjoy weekly Sunday night meals with them.
In the years after marrying, Karen and I discovered we both had suffered childhood abuse, long buried in our hearts. Our marriage has been a journey of recovery.
On my part, from the time I turned 5 years old until I turned 8, the associate pastor of my family’s home congregation first groomed me, then sexually abused me. For three years he repeatedly violated my young self. This marked my life. It changed my bearings. It ripped at my faith. It wounded my self-image. It injured future relationships. I didn’t know what it meant to be a little boy, and later struggled with what it meant to be a man. Like the tentacles of a weed travel beneath the soil, so this season of destruction reached into every aspect of my life. I have been on weed patrol for decades. Healing takes time.
The remarkable thing about that journey is during it, beginning when I was five, Jesus began to call me into ordained ministry. Instead of becoming embittered toward the church, I ended up serving churches for 33 years as lead pastor to redeem the very “office of pastor.” Jesus allowed me to walk with countless sexual abuse victims to see them healed. People were sent to me over the years, by word of mouth, to find healing. As a wounded healer, Jesus empowered me to help others. This has all been and still is a privilege and honor. There is no more sacred turf than in the memory of a hurting soul when Jesus shows up to heal.
In addition, I had the opportunity to be the kind of pastor kids need – safe, present, and real. Not the kind of pastor I had experienced. Out of this experience, Jesus called me to write my first book out of the theme that every kid deserves safe adults. This story, “Hello, My Name is Phillip,” told some pieces of my own and wife’s story. If interested, you can find it at www.brianshimer.com. Writing this book impacted me. There were many times in writing, tears streamed down my cheeks as Jesus worked on my heart. Surprisingly, it was as if I was listening to the story being told by the main character, so I enjoyed it as I wrote it.
I love storytelling. In 2011, I experienced my first workshop in Simply the Story, a Bible storytelling method that involves those listening in discussion. Its simplicity and power staggered me. I was sold. I wanted to teach it when I retired but began to use it in preaching then. It is incredible to see how the Word takes root in people’s lives in ways that had not happened with regular preaching. Through this method I became better at asking questions, which brought blessing to many areas of my life.
Simple things and simple pleasures in life are my favorites — digging in the dirt to plant a flower, baking a cake, sunlight through the window on a spring day, ultra-marine blue watercolor paint on paper, or jumping into the ice-cold water of a mountain lake.
