Home
Near-Death Experience Draws Cop to Seminary
Craig Pinley
CHICAGO, IL (November 16, 2000) - Moses found out God's plan through a burning bush. Elijah received encouragement from a still, small voice. The future ministry of Jesus was confirmed via a dove.
It was through a near-death experience that God spoke to police officer Dennis Dobson, who says he is grateful he heard the message. Nearly 10 years after being shot in the head and left to die,
40-year-old Dobson is in his 15th year as a police officer for the Chicago Police Department, working the West Side of the city. He is also a minister at Oakdale Covenant Church and a first-year student at North Park Theological Seminary, following a call he heard earlier, but didn't listen to until being struck down by a criminal.
It was January 7, 1991. Dobson and partner Eddie Jones were working under cover and had arrested Alexis Green hours earlier as part of a weeklong drug investigation. Green told the officers about another drug deal taking place nearby and volunteered to help them find suspects. According to John Dineen, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Green was directing Dobson and Jones to an even better bust. "You always try to move up to something bigger," said Dineen in a Chicago Tribune article shortly after the shooting. "You follow up any way you can. That's the way the game is played."
While en route to the second location, Green reportedly pulled a hidden handgun and shot the pair. Both officers were injured and the police car crashed in the parking lot of a local grocery store.
"He (Green) came around, went into our pockets, took our money, took my gun," said Dobson. "I just started praying." Dobson was a Christian at the time, having attended Oakdale Covenant Church while he was a football player at Lindblom High School. In fact, he remembers telling
doctors not to operate on him until he received confirmation that his church knew about his injury and was praying for him. After that, "the next time I woke up and could remember anything was a few days later."
Jones died hours after being shot, but Dobson amazingly survived and ultimately had no long-term debilitating injuries. The Chicago Tribune reported the bullet entered the back of Dobson's scalp and lodged in the right side of his neck. Doctors said if the bullet had entered a
centimeter or two to the left, Dobson could have been killed or paralyzed. Dobson said the bullet just missed his windpipe and severed main arteries in his head, but quick work helped stop the bleeding.
Dobson was in the hospital for three weeks. He said he had to learn everything over again, from speaking to walking and eating. "It was life-changing," Dobson said. "Before, I knew God was there. I trusted Him, I believed in Him. But that (shooting) made Him real."
The weeks after the shooting gave Dobson time to reflect on what God might want for his future. The story of the prophet Jonah being called to Ninevah speaks more clearly than ever to him based on what happened in 1991.
"For two weeks I couldn't talk, and to have nobody to talk to but God places you in a position to just completely open up to everything that God is," Dobson said. "All the things you take for granted all of your life and everything you hold dear becomes more important. At that point,
God became more important because the only person I could talk to was Him. And he began to reveal his plan. Years before that, I had felt a call to ministry, but I ran from it. So I guess the shooting was my whale."
While Dobson tried to discern God's will for his life, he also faced considerable physical rehabilitation. Doctors questioned whether Dobson would recover the majority of his motor skills. However, within weeks there was tremendous progress, a confirmation to Dobson of God's sovereignty over the situation.
"At that point it was (a matter of) taking the word of God - the promises of God - against what they (doctors) said," commented Dobson. "Man has certain insights, but God has all power. One of the things that stuck out was John 14:13-14: 'If you abide in me and my word, ask whatsoever you will and it shall be done.' At that point, you begin to reflect back upon sermons you've heard, scriptures read, talks that you've had with people. And everything you remember reinforces the
faith that you have and actually makes it increase," he continued.
"The doctors were speechless. Over seven days (week two of his hospital stay), everything came back. Not all the strength and function, but . . . I was able to touch my nose, to feed myself, to get up and walk around. Through that, a couple of doctors and nurses came to know Christ because of what they saw."
Recovery was not easy, either physically or mentally. He was confined to his home for a long period - for an active man the inactivity was difficult. Dobson also felt he needed to be supportive of Jones's wife Shari, who struggled with the grieving process. Dobson and Jones (who was also a Christian) promised to care for each other's family in case one or the other died. Dobson takes that responsibility seriously, meeting with Shari regularly (she has remarried).
Dobson misses his partner and friend. When he returned to the force, he had to acquaint himself with a new partner and reacquaint himself with fellow officers, some of whom were less friendly than before. The cold reception from some surprised him.
"I found out after I got back to work that, because of what happened, that the friendships and relationships you've built over the years change," said Dobson. "There's something about seeing someone that almost died and their partner that did die . . . you remind them of something that's negative, you remind them of death, and they don't want to be bothered with you," he continued.
"A lot of people just backed up and went away, but I've made new friendships. And a lot of those friendships have come from witnessing to fellow co-workers or with co-workers who already knew the Lord, talking about things that happened in our lives that helped to strengthen us . . . and there are a couple of people (former friends) who came back and told me what was deep inside of them."
Finally, Dobson's own family relationships, especially with wife Scheris, also changed. "I think both of us realized at that point that there was something more important in life than just co-habitating, that you actually have to look deep inside the other person and really be sensitive to who the other person is," Dobson said. "When you go to work there's that dark side, dealing with people's problems, problems that no one would ever believe. There's a machismo being a police officer - no one wants to be seen as weak. But, one of the things that has kept me strong over the
years is that I've talked (to my wife) about everything that I've done, even things she didn't want to hear. It was those things that made the relationship much stronger."
As he reflects on the events of a decade ago, however, Dobson thinks of the many positive things he has gleaned from the experience. His quiet times with God in the weeks following the shooting strengthened Dobson's resolve to become more involved at church. He eventually served five years on Oakdale Covenant's deacon board before becoming a licensed minister and beginning seminary education.
"It may sound strange, but to have gone through everything I've gone through the past 10 years gives me the ability to help somebody else, to walk through their hurt," Dobson said as he discussed how his pain has aided his pastoral ministry. "Where somebody else may not understand, I may be able to walk with them through what they're going through - their fears, their anxieties, their thoughts. And it's easier for me to steer them in the right direction," he continued.
"Somebody pointed out to me (a couple of years ago), 'you're doing the same things now in the church that you were doing as a policeman,' which was encouraging people where they are now and where they could be," he observed. "It wasn't uncommon for me and my partner to be playing basketball with guys in the alley or sitting on the corner talking to people or taking kids to McDonald's to get them something to eat."
Even the physical ramifications of being shot have had a positive effect on Dobson's career. Being confined to his home shortly after the shooting led to a budding interest in computers. That interest is paying dividends for his department as Dobson now coordinates the upgrading
of computers at his work site.
"You never figure out the bigger picture until later on in life, when you reflect back on what you did," he said. "When I got shot I was confined pretty much to the house, so I had nothing to do," he said of his introduction to computers. "There was a little pamphlet that came in the mail advertising a computer for $400. I believe God gave me that challenge - he said he didn't want me doing what I was doing before, that he was giving me something else to do. And now a lot of our undercover investigations are done on a computer."
Dobson has enjoyed his seminary education and believes it will help his ministry at Oakdale. But that doesn't mean he's ready to give up his daytime job yet. A pension in nine years is one positive reason for staying on the police force. The ministry he has with fellow officers may be even more compelling, however.
"My biggest focus in ministry is to let people see who they are in Christ before they have to face a traumatic situation or before they have to face a catastrophe in their lives," he said. "If they realize who they are before, then their strength will lie in Christ and not in the things around them. I can't save the world, but I'll take one soul at a time."
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
