Heavy metal “freak” no longer shouting outside church
ST. CATHARINES, ON–For years, Ross Ingall felt like he was standing outside the doors of the church yelling about what was wrong with organized religion. Until, he says, he realized God wanted him to step into the pulpit.
This fall, Ingall became pastor of Facer Street Baptist Church. It is his first parish.
Ingall says he grew up in a home without religion. “Nobody in my family went to church except my uncle and aunt," he says, “and they were forbidden from bringing religion into the house."
As a teenager, he went down to Texas to visit a friend, where he visited a huge Baptist church.
“That's where I became a Christian," Ingall says. “Then I came home and my decision was not popular."
He says he tried attending a local Baptist church, but they weren't welcoming to the “cigarette-smoking, long haired, heavy metal freak.
“I decided I didn't like church," he says. “I decided organized religion was a lot of [garbage]. I decided to do what I could on my own, reading my Bible, being a solitary believer."
After dropping out of high school, he got a job in the collections industry, where he worked for 19 years.
“It was high pressure," Ingall says. “I was totally stressed out. You had a quota every day, a quota every month. You had a major number and you beat it on a major basis or you were gone.
“Along with it came things like heavy drinking... I was an angry person. Somebody with a chip on his shoulder."
After his marriage dissolved, Ingall grew closer to a friend who was also going through a marital breakup.
“Joanne's family and mine have known each other since I was three," he says. “In December 2002, she invited me to Christmas dinner with her six children, and asked me where my faith was."
They later married. It was Joanne, he says, who made him reexamine his faith.
“She's a person of deep faith," he says, “She convinced me to give church another chance."
He entered McMaster Divinity College in 2003, graduating in 2008. He spent two years as an associate at Dundas Baptist Church, and did pulpit-supply at Facer Street. In October, he was inducted as pastor.
According to Facer Street's website, “Ross is not afraid to speak out against religious phonies, judgmental Christians and fundamentalist, conservative radicals who destroy the original, biblical message of Jesus. If you're tired of the same old angry, judgmental Christian rhetoric stop by some Sunday and hear Ross give a message."
“My opinion of religiosity hasn't changed," he adds. “But Joanne...clarified the fact that you can either stand outside the doors shouting at the top of the lungs and no one inside can hear you. Or you go inside the building and suddenly people are going to listen."
Facer Street recently took part in the local AIDS walk, and has also started a community drop-in.
“It's a small church," he says. “On a really good day, we might hit 30 visitors. But the congregation is on a mission to transform this dusty old church into something that's serving the community. That's the mission we're on.
“The point to me is that everything rests on the difference between being 'religious' or being an authentic follower of Christ."
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