GROVE CITY — At 17 years old, the Rev. Iain Duguid read a passage in the Bible that predicted his life's work.

"I had been attending a youth group meeting and it occurred to me that I had never asked the Lord what he wanted me to do with my own life, and I had my own opinions," Duguid said.

"I went home and was reading the Book of Romans and opened up a passage and a verse leaped out at me where Paul says, 'It has always been my mission to preach the gospel' — and the Lord used that in my life."

Now 47, the native of Scotland moved to Grove City two years ago to teach at Grove City College.

On July 20, he opened Christ Presbyterian Church in his home. The church is a part of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which has historical roots in Scotland and is now centered in North Carolina.

Duguid said Christ Presbyterian Church offers a place for people who haven't attended church recently or for those who are looking for Christ-centered teachings.

"We want to be a church where people who haven't fit into other churches can find a home," he said.

"Right from the start in the denomination, there has been a concern that as churches, we aren't just interested in changing people's behavior — getting people to be good little people — we center our ministry around the reality of the gospel," he said.

For the past year, he has been inviting students from the college to study at his house on Sunday nights, and said hospitality is a crucial part of the church he wants to create.

"This summer we are eating together every Sunday after church, and we will do that regularly, and there is something very biblical about that — the church family sitting around the table and eating."

Between 15 and 30 people from the college and the community have been attending, Duguid said. Anticipating continued growth, he plans to move services to the Grove City YMCA in September. Bryan Miller is Duguid's assistant, and hopes to be ordained within a year. He moved from San Diego to Grove City about a month ago to help with the church.

"I'll be preaching and leading worship once or twice a month and helping with all kinds of logistics," Miller said.

"Rev. Duguid is well connected and it has been easy to network and get people to visit and there is a lot of interest, and we are looking to reach out."

Duguid said his path to preaching has taken him all over the world. As a young boy, he knew he wanted to preach the word of God, but a counselor told him to go out into the world and make a life for himself first.

"If you are going to pastor people and shepherd them through life's difficult experiences, you need to have some more experience yourself, so that's why I pursued the engineering," Duguid said.

"If you are going to walk alongside people with difficult work experiences and you have never worked outside of a church setting, it's harder to relate, so I really wanted to grow up I think."

Duguid worked as an engineer for the oil industry in Scotland for years, and then traveled to Liberia, Africa. He was an engineer with a Christian radio station and then worked at a hospital, where he met his wife, Barb.

The two married and then spent four years in Philadelphia from 1985 to 1989, while Duguid studied at Westminster Theological Seminary. The couple then moved to Cambridge, England, where he earned a doctorate in the Old Testament at Oxford.

They have five children in high school and college.

Duguid said the passage he read when he was younger became even more profound as he grew up, as it goes on to say "My mission is to preach the gospel where it has never been preached before," he said.

He started a church in Cambridge working with people living in low-income housing until 1995, and then began to teach at a reform seminary in Jackson, Miss. Shortly after, his family moved to San Diego, Calif., to start another church and remained there for 10 years.

Duguid discovered Grove City while working with Grove City College alumni in California.

"In California we had a number of excellent Grove City College graduates, not just in academics, but people with a real heart for ministry and love for people," Duguid said. "So, that was impressive to me and I was predisposed."

When the college had an opening for a professor teaching the Old Testament, along with the course Science, Faith and Technology, Duguid knew it would be a good fit.

This summer the church meets at 10 a.m. Sundays at 115 W. Hunt Drive, Grove City. In September, it will move to the Grove City YMCA.

For information, contact Duguid at 724-450-1027 or iduguid@verizon.net.