A Vehicle for Salvation

By Anneliese Rider

Like many Detroit natives, Dr. Eric Moore started his career as an engineer in Motor City’s auto industry, but a call to ministry led him to bi-vocational ministry and teaching at Moody Theological Seminary in Michigan.

With multiple degrees and a kitchen sink full of experience and published works, Eric’s real passion isn’t his résumé—it’s preaching and teaching about Jesus. In his own words: “Okay, Lord, this really is about You. It’s really not about me. You’re just using me as a vehicle.”

‘What . . . if I had died?’

Eric wasn’t sure he was going to heaven until he almost found out the hard way.

“I think I loved Jesus, but I can’t remember ever clearly hearing the gospel articulated,” Eric says. During Christmas break his freshman year, he realized he needed to be certain.

“I was home from college, and I was driving on the freeway on my way to work, and I hit a patch of ice and the car almost hit this wall,” Eric remembers, describing the two-mile concrete wall on the shoulder of Detroit’s Lodge Freeway. “My heart started beating like crazy, and I thought, Wow, I could have died. That made me start thinking, Man, what would have happened if I had died?”

Eric’s uncle led him through the salvation prayer, and Eric says, “That’s where everything began.”

Following God’s leading

After graduating with his BS in electrical engineering, Eric got a job at the Ford Motor Company and earned his MBA from the University of Michigan. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that God had something more for him. Maybe not ministry, “But I knew I wanted to know God’s Word better than I did at that time,” Eric says.

So Eric moved to Texas and earned his MA in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary—then moved back to Detroit and his job at Ford in 1989.

“I thought, I’m going to be a Christian businessman and try to make an impact for Jesus on the job,” Eric recalls, describing the Bible study he started. But soon, he came to the awkward realization that he had more biblical education than his pastor. “It seemed like God began to speak to me and say, ‘I didn’t send you to seminary to sit in the pew. I have more plans for you.’”

In 1992, Eric moved to Grand Rapids to help his friend plant a church. And then he met Marilyn—“I thought she was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen in my life.”

Watching answered prayers

Eric and Marilyn married, had a baby boy in 1999 when Marilyn’s daughter was 10, and moved back to Detroit to help plant Tree of Life Bible Fellowship Church, where Eric served as a pastor. Eric continued to work in the auto industry to support his growing family.

He recalls one time the church couldn’t cover its monthly rent.

“I remember praying to God, ‘You own the cattle on a thousand hills; in fact, you own the hills on which the cattle reside. This ministry was Your idea, not ours. We need You to provide the finances to pay our rent.’”

That evening, after preaching at a large church, a man shook Eric’s hand.

“There’s something in his hand, and he said, ‘My wife and I talked, and we just want you to have this,’” Eric says. “It was exactly what we needed for rent.”

When budget cuts hit the Ford Motor Company in 2002, Eric’s department was the first to go. One morning, after the severance had run out and he was facing the reality that the church still couldn’t support his family, Eric fervently asked God to provide again.

Later that day, he got a call from Michigan Theological Seminary, where he frequently studied for sermons in the campus library. They offered him a job in the registrar’s office, and, in Eric’s words, “One thing just kept leading to another.” Eventually he earned his DMin from Western Seminary and became a full-time professor at Moody Theological Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan, all while still pastoring at his church. Today he serves as professor of Applied Theology.

Having spent almost his entire career in bi-vocational ministry, Eric would say he’s learned many lessons the hard way. In his book, Pastoring the Small Church (Wipf and Stock, 2013), he compiled many of them, hoping to teach others through his experiences.

Joining Today in the Word

Eric—a new writer for Today in the Word—completed his first issue in December 2023, a Christmas-themed devotion on the Gospel of John. His second issue, August 2024, is about the book of Job “and his three so-called friends,” Eric says, “and dealing with these people that have already made up their mind about you and your situation.”

Eric is just as passionate about reading and studying God’s Word for himself as he is about helping others read and study.

“Anytime I have an opportunity to dig into the Word, it’s a joy to me,” Eric says, also describing his delight when he hears from readers. “God’s Word impacts people, even if it’s something that was just a sidebar or something I shared in passing as I was trying to get to what I thought was the main point.”

But it’s not just academic; Eric knows the truth about God’s faithfulness from personal experience.

“I’ve seen God’s hand in my life, and usually it doesn’t come till my back is against the wall and I’m like, ‘Okay, Lord, this really is about You. It’s not about me. You’re just using me as a vehicle, but we need You to come through.’ And every time, He’s come through.”