EDMOND—For the last four years, Philadelphia Church of God senior writer Dennis Leap has brought his candor and kindness to the Hall of Administration each day, where he draws on 63 years of education and experience for his hundreds of articles on pcog.org and in the Philadelphia Trumpet and Royal Vision publications. But his contributions to God’s Work go back 40 years. From 15 years in the Worldwide Church of God and 25 years in the pcg, he has learned a powerful lesson of faith to do the Work through following the example of Pastor General Gerald Flurry, serving as a minister for most of North America, helping win a court case, and enduring intense trials.

Mr. Leap is currently chipping away at a mass of projects: a new childrearing booklet under the direction of Evangelist Stephen Flurry, a series of childrearing articles for pcog.org, and a series on Moses for the Royal Vision. He also writes frequently on social and biblical topics for the Trumpet and manages article posting for pcog.org.

“God is helping me be really productive right now,” Mr. Leap said. “My health is much improved. I have a lot more energy and strength thanks to God’s healing power.”

Mr. Leap taught English-Language Literature and Shakespearean Literature at Herbert W. Armstrong College for the first time this past academic year. He puts to use his two-year master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and his undergraduate degree in English Literature, in which he studied the works of English poets William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Keats and John Donne, as well as modern American penmen. Delving into Shakespeare’s writings with the sophomore class inspired Mr. Leap’s May-June 2015 Trumpet article “Shakespeare Asks: Not to Be—What’s It Like?,” which examines life’s most important questions through the poetic medium of Hamlet.

Mr. Leap’s faith-packed history with God’s Church began in March 1975, when he began attending the Worldwide Church of God. At the time, he had become discouraged with Catholicism and was studying the Bible—contrary to his family’s wishes, he said—but couldn’t understand it. Once he read the account in the Gospel of John of Jesus Christ’s former life as the Word, he stopped attending Catholic services and started watching Sunday television programming in search of the one true Church. He found The World Tomorrow, with host Garner Ted Armstrong.

In the wcg, Mr. Leap spent nine years with Mr. Gerald Flurry, four of them serving as a deacon. He was baptized in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June 1975, then moved to Pendleton, Oregon, in December. Mr. Flurry had just moved to Pasco, Washington, that September to pastor four congregations in the Pacific Northwest region where Mr. Leap now lived. After almost a decade of learning from Mr. Flurry, Mr. Leap moved to Buffalo, New York, in December 1984; Mr. Flurry relocated to Oklahoma in July 1985.

Mr. Leap says God obviously coordinated his proximity to Mr. Flurry for those nine years. “He taught us so much about God’s truth revealed to us through Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong,” Mr. Leap said.

God tested the faith of Mr. Leap and every wcg member after Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1986. As the Church rebelled against Mr. Armstrong’s teachings, Mr. Leap’s admiration for Mr. Flurry paid off. But not at first. “I knew there was something wrong,” Mr. Leap recalled. “He did offer for me to read Malachi’s Message in March or April 1989, but I said, ‘Oh, I don’t want any part in that.’”

While privately discussing a sermonette he was to give one Sabbath in December 1989, Mr. Leap mentioned to his pastor the prophetic significance behind the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9. For 50 years, Mr. Armstrong had urgently warned of a united Germany soon to rise on the world scene. But on that Sabbath, the local pastor corrected Mr. Leap from the lectern for drawing attention to that fulfilled prophecy.

When Mr. Leap got home from services, he called Mr. Flurry. “I’m ready to do whatever God wants,” Mr. Leap remembers telling him. “You can send me the book now.”

Mr. Leap entered the pcg with his wife, Deborah, on March 3, 1990. Ordained in the wcg on Dec. 8, 1984, he was the first local church elder to leave the wcg and enter the pcg. He moved from Buffalo to Atlanta, Georgia, in January 1992, then to headquarters that November to write and to work in the television department. He was regional director of the southeastern U.S. from 1990-1993, the northeast and Canada from 1993-1997, and the southeast again until 2006. He also served as director of Philadelphia Youth Camp from 1992-1999. He ministered exclusively at headquarters from 2006-2008. Though no longer active in the ministry, he said his ministerial experience benefits his writing.

As if shepherding thousands of pcg members for 18 years didn’t test his faith enough, Mr. Leap was also plunged into the midst of the pcg vs. wcg court case from 1997-2003. The miraculous pcg victory, in which the church gained the rights to 19 of Mr. Armstrong’s written works, inspired Mr. Leap’s January-February 2015 Royal Vision article “Whose Faith Follow.”

For six years, Mr. Leap acted as liaison between Mr. Flurry and the Church’s lawyers. Mr. Leap says the lawyers tried desperately to convince Mr. Flurry to compromise or accept a settlement because they seemed doomed to lose in crushing fashion. Every time, Mr. Flurry refused. “Mr. Flurry never, never, never, never, never doubted for one minute that we would win,” Mr. Leap said. “Where was the hope? It was coming right from God.”

Mr. Leap said that Mr. Flurry is like an older brother and a spiritual father to him. “The one vital spiritual lesson I learned,” he wrote in that Royal Vision article, “which I plan to carry with me into eternity, concerns the critical importance of the faith of the leaders above us.”

Severe illness and other trials nearly derailed Mr. Leap just five years after the court case concluded, but he emerged from the struggle with his faith made stronger. In July 2010, Mr. Leap was hired into the landscaping department on the AC campus in Edmond. His prior landscaping experience helped him contribute to elaborate landscaping designs around Armstrong Auditorium, including rock walls, colorful flower patterns and tree formations. From July until February 2011, passersby often saw Mr. Leap trimming trees all over campus.

Meanwhile, Mr. Leap began writing part-time for the Church in August 2010. After eight months of braving the elements, he was transferred in February 2011 inside the Hall of Administration, where he received his dream job title: full-time writer. Based on his warm smile and energetic personality, brethren who meet him today would never guess that Mr. Leap endured harrowing trials so recently. Before them stands a man revitalized and reinvigorated by his deep involvement in God’s Work.

“I’m living proof you don’t retire at 63,” Mr. Leap said. “I feel more like I’m 19. With God’s help, I want to do everything I can to help finish this glorious Work.”