Car salesman becomes Norwich church pastor

When his wife Jill became a Christian, car salesman Vic Ready from Taverham was determined that the same would never happen to him – then “he was hit with a holy sledgehammer” and ended up as a church pastor.

“I’d been married a year when my wife Jill became a Christian,” recounts Vic. “There was a quite dramatic change in her life. For the next five years she wanted me to become a Christian and, quite honestly, there was no way that was going to happen. I really wasn’t interested.
 
“Besides, I thought I couldn’t be a successful car salesman if I was going to be a Christian as perhaps car salesmen don’t always tell the whole truth.” 
 
Vic did agree to read two Christian books though - ‘The Cross and the Switchblade’ by Nicky Cruz and ‘Nine o’clock in the Morning’ by Dennis Bennett. 
 
“At the end of the Nicky Cruz story, I thought: ‘What has happened here is real’. For several months I was really convicted, and it reached a point where I felt I had to decide either for or against. 
 
“One night when Jill was at church, I decided to ask Jesus into my heart just to see if it would make any difference. I knew I needed to be clean, so I thought it would be a good idea if I had a bath at the same time.
 
“Not much happened, but in the morning, I knew I had been born again. There was a complete change in me, as if I had been hit by a holy sledgehammer.
 
“I worked at a car dealer in Yarmouth, and as I drove to work it felt as if it were the first day of my life. I determined that when I got to work, I would tell everyone in the garage what had happened to me, so that is just what I did. When my boss came in, I told him, and he had a good laugh. He said: ‘I’ll give you a couple of weeks.’
 
“I honestly thought, I won’t be able to keep my job. How am I ever going to sell a car without… perhaps not telling the whole truth?’ But within 18 months I was the car sales manager. 
 
“I felt incredibly light, and I had such a heart to read the Bible. My ambitions had been to be successful, to make money and enjoy life. And now out of the blue I wanted to serve God.” 
 
After finishing as a car sales rep, Vic became a bank rep and then went on to become a pharmaceutical rep. But in addition to this he started to lead a new church in Taverham.
 
“Taverham Evangelical Church, Tec, for which I am the Senior Pastor, has been blessing people now for over 30 years,” said Vic, “and we have had some wonderful times during that period. I am passionate about the church serving the local community. There are so many needs that I wish more Christians would join churches like ours. It is so fulfilling.”

Over the years, hundreds of people have been helped by the church. "Many have been born again, healed, and gone on to serve the Lord in various ways. I am more excited about what God is doing now in the local church than I have ever been in my time of ministry.”
 
Although Vic hopes to be able to retire next year from being Senior Pastor at Tec, he says he will always be involved in church ministry. “Over the years I have experienced many miracles, and I hope to able to share some of them by ministering whenever and wherever I am asked in the future.”
 
Vic mentions particularly his latest answer to prayer. “For seventy years I have had asthma and on two occasions I was hospitalised with acute asthma attacks; one of them was very nearly fatal. I was very grateful for the drugs that changed my life but despite praying often for complete healing it simply didn’t happen.

"Three months ago, whilst in prayer once more about my breathing being worse since Covid, I felt the Lord tell me to stop taking the various drugs that I used every day. This I did as I was sure that I had heard correctly. That is now over three months ago. Since then, I have not needed or indeed taken anything for asthma, and I can do so many things now that before I couldn’t.” 
 
Looking back over nearly fifty years of Christian life, Vic feels he has been blessed to be serving Christ. “There have been difficult times, as there are for all of us, but the good ones outnumber them by far. Having a supporting wife and family has meant that the burden is shared. One verse perhaps sums up my life’s journey: ‘In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths’ (Proverbs 3:6).

Pictured above are Vic and Jill Ready.