About Stephen Gosling

Raised as an Army brat, I was a generic Protestant. At each location we moved to, there would be a pastor from a different Protestant denomination. Confirmed at our family Congregational Church, I at least had some church schooling. In high school, I tried to attend as many different types of churches as possible. College was turbulent. An early marriage didn’t help, and a quick bounce into a second marriage made matters worse. My new wife got pregnant on our wedding night with a Down syndrome baby, and I decided I would stay and parent that boy until he was settled as an adult.

A family crisis occurred while we were in New Jersey, and I was working for a company we later learned was owned by “the family.” One late evening, I prayed for help, and God replied, “Go home.” The extraction was very difficult, even dangerous, but God protected my family and me as we escaped. Once back in Texas, we started going to a large Methodist church. Our two boys were baptized. I joined the men’s group, which met on Fridays at 6 am for breakfast.

One time while praying, God suggested I should teach. I understood He meant adult Bible study classes. Of course, I had no qualifications. Within a few days, I visited my folks in San Antonio. I was in their living room and picked up Mother’s Bible, an NIV Study Bible. For 30 minutes, I read scripture and footnotes, and the Word came alive like never before. I told Mother, who lovingly put her arm around my shoulder, looked me in the eye with tears in hers, and told me to keep it. I devoured it.

Our church was blessed with an amazing teacher who graciously took me under his wing. The pastor also acted as my mentor, taking time even though the church was large. They placed me as the substitute teacher, filling in when one of the teachers couldn’t make it. Great experience!

From there, I was called to another church, where I taught adult Bible study and served as an elder. After ten years, I moved to another town and looked for a new church.

Although I had a list of three churches to visit, it was clear I was to serve at the first one I went to, Vista Ridge UMC. I’ve been there from 2005 to 2024. I taught Bible study, took Disciple Bible Study, taught DBS, served as a liturgist, and did other things.

The pressures at work had become unsustainable, and I knew God wanted me to write a book on Luke, which I had taught several times. I resigned but then went to work for an architect for just 30 hours a week. This gave me time to work on the book. Not enough time, it seems. No, God wanted all my time, so my tenure was limited to one year. Six months later, To Seek and Save – The Gospel of Luke was published.

Since then, I have written We Are All Corinthians, a Weekly Devotional. My friends who read it told me the “Weekly” didn’t work, so I rewrote it and adapted a new format: Scripture, commentary, devotional. This book, We Are All Corinthians, Revised Edition, has become the most popular. Finally, I rewrote To Seek and Save, using the newer format.