Former naval officer hopes to revitalize Sligo Baptist Church as new pastor

‘‘I’m here for the long haul and here for a reason,” said Corrigan, who has been knocking on doors, handing out literature and holding open houses as a way to introduce himself and attract worshippers. ‘‘We’re letting people know we’re here to serve God.”

Corrigan and his family — wife, Amy, and children Quinn, 9, Sunny, 8, and Marie, 3 — moved from Southern Maryland to the Kemp Mill area in January after Corrigan retired from the Navy and left a high-paying job as a defense contractor to follow a spiritual calling.

‘‘Most people don’t go off the deep end and walk away from lucrative careers,” Corrigan said Thursday, four days after a grand reopening celebration at the Dennis Avenue church.

A Roman Catholic for 34 years, Corrigan became ‘‘born again” in his mid-30s, about 16 years after enlisting in the Navy, during a visit to a Baptist church in Sicily, where he was stationed.

His first child had been born and he and his wife were looking for a church. A friend in the Navy invited him to his Baptist church but the initial visit didn’t feel comfortable. ‘‘I didn’t know what we were looking for, but, we said, ‘This isn’t it.’”

On a follow-up visit, he had a completely different experience that gave him a greater understanding of Scripture, a desire to learn more and a sense of inner peace he said he ‘‘couldn’t shake.”

‘‘It was like a light clicked on and my heart opened,” he said. ‘‘I felt I had a big backpack of rocks on me, representing sin, and it was loaded. I dropped that pack and God lifted it.”

Corrigan remained in the Navy for another eight years, moving up the ranks in the supply corps. In 2004, he had just signed up to serve another three years in exchange for a master’s in business administration he earned in Monterey, Calif. He was in line for a new promotion and it appeared his life was on a certain track.

But then, ‘‘God called me to preach.”

The next year, he was shipped to Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province in a support role with coalition troops. There, he followed his calling, preaching to military personnel on the base where he lived and venturing out to hand out Christian literature and, through interpreters, talk to local Afghans about Jesus.

When he returned in 2006, he had a decision to make and was looking for a sign from God to steer him.

‘‘I said, ‘Lord, I have a great career, I’m set up again to be promoted, you’ll have to make it real clear,’” he said. The next week, he met a preacher who had been ministering to troops in Germany and that visit, he said, ‘‘made it crystal clear in my heart.”

He entered the seminary at Independent Baptist Bible College in Clinton and retired from the Navy in 2007.

As Corrigan began a search for a church to serve, Sligo Baptist Church was looking for a minister. The pastor at the time was driving from Delaware and decided he could no longer make the trip, said Terry Seamens, a longtime member and a Takoma Park city councilman.

The congregation had dwindled from 200 at its height to about 12 when the last pastor left, said Seamens, who serves as the church’s treasurer. He said the congregation wanted a full-time pastor who was ‘‘younger and dynamic” and wanted to remain fundamentalist.

Rick Connor, pastor of Patuxent Baptist Church in Great Mills who met Corrigan when he was stationed at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, helped put the word out about Corrigan.

‘‘Financially, he could do other things, but he’s doing what he thinks is the greatest thing,” he said.

Seamens had contacted the Tennessee-based Baptist International Missions Inc., which places ministers in Baptist churches throughout the world, and they put him in touch with two candidates. One had already started a church in Columbia. The other was Corrigan.

After meeting with him, Seamens said he knew Corrigan was the right fit for the church.

‘‘He’s young and his family is young and families are important to building churches,” Seamens said. ‘‘Although he’s new to pastoring a church, he comes with good maturity. ... He has the maturity to lead.”