Mike Duran

Disciplish Mike Duran

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first... blowout. In the spring of 1980, Mike Duran responded to an altar call and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. It'd been a hard road home. Raised Catholic, in an alcoholic home, somehow he'd gone off the rails, plunging into the world of rock music, psychedelic drugs, and occultism. However, his conversion would change all that. Suddenly Mike was a Jesus freak! But his adventure was just beginning. Seventeen years from that day, he would be stripped of a pastoral title, publicly disciplined, and disband the church he had pastored for over a decade. Was he just another ministerial casualty? Or was this part of some larger divine plan? Having little education and few marketable skills, Mike's wife and family were forced to empty the small retirement account they'd accumulated and he took a minimum wage construction job working the night shift. Thus began an unconventional pilgrimage. Faith journeys come in all shapes and sizes. No one is exactly alike. Sometimes they leave us wounded and broken, questioning God and ourselves. Sometimes they leave us shipwrecked. This is a memoir of one man's unconventional faith journey. Along the way, you'll meet a cast of colorful, often tragic characters who help Mike ponder theology, art, and wonky religious minutiae. This is not a de-conversion story. Neither is it a manual for "victorious Christian living." Rather, it is a tale about spiritual blowouts... and how one man's faith survived them.