Evangelical Covenant Church

Pastor

Pastor Sumit Sen

B.A. University of South Dakota, M.Div. (Master of Divinity) North Park Theological Seminary, Th.M. (Master of Theology) Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, DTh. (Doctor of Theology) student at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

I was born in India, in the city of Kolkata. I came to the USA in January of 1992 to go to college. It was an exciting time in my life. When I came to America, I learned about the American motto of the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. I knew the motto but I did not know what this happiness looked like. My college friends took me to an all American bar. They introduce me to the American way of Friday night life. Beer was good so was the fried chicken, but the heart burn early in the morning told me that this was not happiness. I thought may be being rich in this country, driving a BMW, is the American way to happiness. But then I saw the wretched lives of some of the rich people, their divorces, their addictions and their broken family lives. I knew that that is not happiness either. What is happiness then, I thought? I started to feel an emptiness grow within me. Nothing seemed to fulfill me. I was there at the hospital when my dad died, I was at the bed side of my favorite aunt when she passed away, I had sat holding the hand of my uncle after he passed away, and as a nurse’s aide I had cleaned dead bodies at a nursing home in this country. All these deaths in my life had left emptiness within me. Then I made few bad choices, got into a few bad relationships, a few bad relationships built on lies, desire of the flesh, and immorality. I drifted far away from God. But I guess God was not far away from me even then. I do not know why, but maybe God remembered the little boy in India and his excitement during Christmas time. Maybe that is why He was there even when that little boy, now a grown up man drifted away from Him. God sent some good Christians and some pushy Christians to tell Him that Jesus loves Him. Through a bad relationship I ended up in Church. There came a time in my life, after that relationship ended miserably, when my back was against the wall. I had nothing meaningful left in my life. I had lost my job. I was living one day at a time. I was angry, bitter, and hurting. One day I was sitting at my pastor’s office, I think it was on or after my birthday. I was very lonely; no one had called me to wish me a happy birthday. The only note I received was from my land lord asking me to pay my rent. Lonely I sat bawling, did not have a future, and did not know what I wanted to do with my life. It was then that a gift came, a call from my Father in Heaven. He used Pastor Philip Rohler to ask me if I had ever thought of becoming a Pastor. I do not know why God would ask a sobbing, pathetic loser like me at that time to come shepherd His congregation, but I know that that is the best gift I have ever received. And I said yes to that gift. He called me when I was most broken, when I was most weak.
Since then my life has changed. I have served churches in Iowa, and now I am in Portage Indiana by God’s grace. I learned a lot about ministry from the people in these small towns. I remember when I did my first funeral ever. I was in Pomeroy. I was very nervous on the morning of the funeral. I said to the widow Ruth Lantz, “Ruth I wish you had a more experienced pastor to do your husband’s funeral.” Ruth comforted me saying, “Pastor, God has brought you here. You will do fine.” I was comforted by the widow who needed my comforting that morning since it was her husband who died. I guess that is how pastors are born. They are born with the encouragement and support of the local saints such as Ruth Lantz.
I am married to my lovely wife Jody. We have been married for nine years, and we are in the process of adopting two little children from the foster care system.

Email: pastorsumit@frontier.com