When Paul Cedar was a boy growing up in the Presbyterian manse of Howard Lake, Minnesota, he never saw his father leave the yard without a coat and tie unless there was a work day at the church. The pastoral image was visible, distinct, decorous at all times.

The son entered his father's vocation during his senior year at Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, when he took his first pastorate. It was a small-town Methodist congregation of fifteen souls founded by George McGovern's father.

He has since ministered in many contexts: directing Youth for Christ in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; serving a small Evangelical Free church in the Chicago suburb of Naperville while finishing seminary (Northern Baptist); managing crusades for the Billy Graham Association; pioneering an Evangelical Free church in Yorba Linda, California; becoming executive pastor of the prestigious Hollywood Presbyterian Church . . . and since 1981, leading Pasadena's Lake Avenue Congregational Church as senior pastor. ...