A LIFE OF FAITHFUL
WITNESS
D
uke Heller is a long-time member of Grace Polaris Church, a Charis Fellowship congregation in Westerville, Ohio (Mike Yoder, lead pastor). He has dedicated much of his life to sharing the Gospel and teaching other believers how to do the same. He first came to know the Lord as his personal Savior at church under the teaching of Jim Custer, now senior pastor emeritus. In the Spring of 1972, Duke was out for a jog and passed by what was then Grace Brethren Church in Worthington, Ohio. When he saw that the parking lot was packed, he decided he and his family should visit the church to see what it was like. The first time Duke visited the church he was struck by what then Senior Pastor Jim Custer said. “I remember Pastor Jim saying, ‘if you have a teenage daughter and she were to be killed in an automobile accident, do you know 100 percent for sure where she would go?’ and I couldn’t answer that question.” Duke had believed he was a Christian his whole life, but he couldn’t remember ever making the decision to follow Christ. “Pastor Jim went on to say, ‘If you can’t answer that for your daughter, there’s a good chance you can’t answer it for yourself ’ and I knew he was right,” Duke said.
Top: Duke Heller and his wife, Wanda, who died in 2019.
Duke had never attended a church that offered a salvation invitation like that. Pastor Jim called forward those who wanted to commit their lives to Christ, and Duke responded. He talked with Associate Pastor Frank Gardner who explained Duke needed to repent of his sin and ask Jesus to be the Lord of his life. From that moment on, not only was Duke committed to Christ, but he was committed to telling others about him. God had begun working in Duke’s life to prepare him for that encounter two months prior. One of his patients asked him if he was a Christian and when he made that decision. Duke responded that he’d been a Christian all his life and told the man all the areas he volunteered his time. “I didn’t ask what you did,” the man responded, “I asked if you could point to the exact moment you accepted Christ in your life.” The question plagued Duke for several weeks. “That man put me in a box…and I don’t
20 GraceConnect | Winter-Spring 2021
