 Receiving his pastoral training at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary) in Pennsylvania, and Shelton College in New York City, he was ordained by the South Brooklyn Baptist Church in 1943, and moved later that year to become pastor of First Baptist Church of New Durham in North Bergen, New Jersey.Resigning that position in late 1944, he became for several years an itinerant preacher in the Eastern and Midwestern States.Unable to adequately support his family in that ministry, he returned to secular work about 1950, but remained available for the rest of his life as a guest and substitute speaker in numerous churches in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.