(First of two parts)

Some might say that Turning Point Community Church is going the wrong way.

But its pastor, the Rev. Marty Minto, would not be among them.

The congregation that Minto began about three years ago moved last fall from the former City Rescue Mission thrift store on Cascade Street to the one-time Church of God building on Ray Street. On any given Sunday morning, about 80 men, women and children turn out for the service.

Not long prior to the move, though, the worship count ran about 150.

Those numbers might alarm some. Not Minto.

“I’ve always said what I firmly believed, no matter what, and I’m still that way today,” the Shenango Township resident said. “It’s not always popular among people.”

Minto learned that first hand one year ago tomorrow when he was fired from his job as talk show host at WORD-FM, a Christian radio station in Pittsburgh. Asked by a caller if he thought Pope John Paul II — who had died just a few days earlier — was in heaven, Minto cited evangelical Christian doctrine that says only those who have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ attain eternal paradise.

Because that relationship hinges on a personal decision by each individual, Minto said, only God knows for sure the spiritual state of one who has died.

Minto’s response got him fired by station management, which apparently was concerned that he had offended Roman Catholic listeners.

Twelve months later, Minto is a full-time pastor at Turning Point. There he delivers the same kind of frank teaching from the pulpit as he did over the airwaves.

“Since planting this church a little over three years ago,” he said, “we’ve seen turnover left and right. A lot of it has been because of doctrine, things you teach. People don’t want to hear the truth. They like it if it’s convenient.

“Plus we’ve had people — and I guess it’s a problem in most churches — who live in sin and don’t want to confess and repent. I’m a confronter. We’re not a mean-spirited church, but the Bible talks about discipline of the body, and sometimes when you confront people lovingly, they run.

“I guess I just have a way of clearing out a building. I’m going to write a book: ‘How to Build Your Brother’s Church.’ ”