Jeremy Heilman became the senior pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church of Genoa on March 13. After nine years as a successful salesman, the Toledo, Ohio, native decided to switch careers.

"From a fairly early age, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a pastor," said Heilman, who was raised in the Lutheran church. "When I got into high school and started looking at colleges, my parents started pushing in the direction of a pre-seminary program. And I did what a lot of kids do: I went in the opposite direction."

While getting his undergraduate degree in business from Bowling Green University in Ohio, Heilman met his future wife, Heather. Before she accepted his proposal, however, she insisted that he return to church.

"I thought, 'OK, it's not going to kill me,'" he said, laughing.

The more he went to church, the more involved he became. While driving back to Ohio after a visit with family in Rockford, Heilman told his wife he felt God was calling him to the seminary.

"She said, 'I've been waiting for you to say so,'" Heilman said. "That was in April and I started in the seminary in June."

Last week, Heilman went on the record with MidWeek reporter Doug Oleson.

MidWeek: Is anyone else in your family in the ministry?
Jeremy Heilman: I get asked that all the time. No, I'm the first one. I come from a long line of drunk reprobates, other than my parents.

MW: Was it a gradual calling?
JH: It was, but I always felt strongly about it. When I was in second or third grade, I used to come home from vacation Bible school in the summer and gather up all my friends who weren't able to attend on my porch and tell them what I had learned.

MW: How did you come to Genoa?
JH: I was serving at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church on the south side of Chicago. ...It's a financially depressed area. So I made myself available to receive a call and I actually had a couple of different congregations that were interested, here in Genoa and one in Lombard. I had to weigh both of those, but we were really looking for a change in environment. After having lived in the city for six years, we were looking for something a little nicer. You know, it's nice to be able to send the kids outside to play. We couldn't do that where we were. You had to go out with them. There was a lot of gang activity.

MW: What are your duties?
JH: Basically, anything and everything. I teach, I preach, I conduct service, I work with youth, I work with Sunday school and vacation Bible school. There isn't necessarily one area that I specialize in. With two of us here (including associate pastor Timothy Frick,) it allows us to get more involved in the community.

MW: What's the difference between a senior pastor and an associate?
JH: It's a title. The biggest difference is that the buck stops here. If there's something that's wrong, it comes to my desk.

MW:  Do you preach differently in a small town than in a large one?
JH: You always want to tailor your sermon to your audience. There are issues that you are going to deal with in the city that you won't deal with so much in a small town. If there's an issue where there are poor crops for a year, out here, it's going to be a big deal.

MW:  What is your biggest challenge here?
JH: To help the congregation reach out more to the community. The congregation has actually been here since 1878. ...In the 70s, they moved the church out (to 33930 North State Road.) The idea was to be able to do more outreach. That's why we have a lot of classrooms. ...Over the years, that has kind of fallen off a little bit. ...Because of that, we've become less visible, especially being a mile and a half outside of town. Not everyone knows who we are. I think my biggest challenge is to kind of bring us back into that picture.

MW: I know you've only been here a few weeks, but how has it been going so far?
JH: So far, it's been great. My wife is from a small town in Ohio that is very similar to Genoa. So it's very comfortable for her. It's comfortable for me, too. It's a nice change from the city. Actually, my mother-in-law, Dorothy Miller, is from Kirkland.

MW: Is it common for someone to pursue ministry as a second career?
JH: It used to be the more common path was to go right from high school to college to the seminary and come out as a pastor in your mid-20s. But now we're finding a lot more guys who are going into a different career first and then coming to the seminary to become a pastor. I think one of the plus sides with that is that you get guys who have a lot more life experience and who can identify with some of the struggles you're going through with family and children and career and things like that.

MW: I would assume maturity would be a factor, too.
JH: You get more maturity, which makes you better able to handle things. ...More and more, you're seeing guys coming in as a second career as opposed to coming through the high school, college, seminary.

MW: Are you glad you made the change yourself?
JH: Oh yeah, absolutely. I really can't picture doing anything else. It is such an enjoyable thing. There are days when I miss being a salesman a little bit just for the fact that there was always something different every day. The field that I was in, industrial equipment, there wasn't a factory in northwest Ohio that I couldn't drive by and tell you this is what they made because I was part of that project. But at the same time, being a pastor, there's always something different every day, too.

MW: So, in a way, are you now a salesman for Christ?
JH: No. I have had people tell me that before. I see myself as more of a spokesman.