Roger L. Alliman

Born on a farm near a small mid-western town, I have very good memories of my childhood. A loving father and mother helped me to begin life with a view of myself as a person of value and a child who was loved and wanted by my family.

School was necessary, of course, but sports and music were more inviting. When I was 12, my father sold our farm and we moved to Denver, Colorado. I became active in athletics and as a musician spent most of my time playing with dance bands. After graduation I entered the University of Denver with a declared major in psychology. Two years later, on a whim, I decided to transfer to Pasadena Playhouse in California where I could pursue an acting career. I was involved with their theater productions and also worked in a community theater in the Los Angeles area to support myself. I loved an audience.

My financial condition didn’t allow me to continue in school, and alas, in 1959 I was drafted into the U.S. Army where, due to my musical and theatre background, I was assigned to Special Services – Entertainment Division – 6th U.S. Army at Fort Lewis, Washington. There I spent two years working as an entertainer writing, producing, directing, and serving as Master of Ceremonies for a variety of shows for the troops with up to 16,000 in the audience. I also acted in plays at the base little theatre and played in bands at the Officer’s and NCO clubs.

With an Honorable Discharge I decided that I didn’t have the money to pursue an acting career and on another whim, I decided to take advantage of my experience and return to college at the University of Iowa with a major in Communications and a minor in Radio-Television.

After another year of school and stressed finances, I was offered a job in radio, in a small Iowa city not far from Iowa City. After a few months, I moved up to News Director at a larger station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That job led to the position of Program Director, and eventual burn out.

I returned to Denver and took a position in the advertising division of a major appliance distributor which over the next two years led to the position of Advertising Director, Rocky Mountain Region for the Hotpoint Division of General Electric Company. During that time I married my wife, Elizabeth.
Eventually I left that position and formed a partnership with another man to open an advertising agency to serve the Denver and Rocky Mountain region. We were quite successful and grew rapidly. gaining respect with numerous awards for our creative work.

After about four years I bought my partner out and we continued to grow. By then, my life was borderline out-of-control. I was lost with no spiritual yearning at all and the good values that I had from my childhood were gradually eroding. By now we had four children, two from my wife’s previous marriage and two of our own. We were living in the fast lane, yet my wife and I both knew something was missing. Her background was Catholic, but, like me, no awareness of “Life” in Jesus Christ – although both of us had plenty of church in our childhood history.

I sold the agency back to my original partner and we moved to the small ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado and soon I was back into the same self-promotion game in my search for value and significance. I was involved with a group of investors to develop a ski lodge. My investors were all from Florida and one year later, I moved my family to Orlando to pursue other developments with this same group. Over the next two years we developed several condominiums in Orlando, Fort Myers, Sanibel Island, and Cape Coral. All were successful.

Shortly after our move to Orlando, in 1973, the wife of one of my investors invited my wife Elizabeth to a get-acquainted luncheon. At that luncheon the lady that sat next to my wife was one of the original group that worked under Dr. James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale as he developed his Evangelism Explosion program. That evening my wife received Jesus Christ as her Savior. I was out of town and when I called home that night and asked my usual “What’s new?” – she told me. My thought at that time was, “Who knows what that means!” Sensitivity was not one of my character traits.

Over the next ninety days, the same woman who led my wife to the Lord, also gently, but firmly, shared her faith with me, and with each of our children. During that time each of us, in different ways, and at different times, heard the clear presentation of the gospel, and were touched by the Spirit of God, and all received Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. From that moment all of our lives were drastically changed. None of us have ever been the same – thank God!

Like every other pattern in our lives, we jumped in with all we had. We learned, we read, we studied the Bible daily and read all kinds of books and went to so many conferences, and saw, and met, many Bible teachers that came through Orlando during that next year-plus.

Early on, I came to believe that God really wanted me to go to seminary. I was determined to do my part in fixing the world for God. But financially, I just couldn’t take that step, so becoming frustrated and personally devastated, my next step was disappointment with God. Angry with God and determined to just sit and wait for Him to do something, I took the next year off, studied the Scriptures, read dozens of Christian books and spent a lot of time with a new friend, Peter Lord, pastor of Park Avenue Church in Titusville, Florida. I learned so much from him during those many months – above all, to trust God in a new way and learn to be still and know that He is God. I waited for the Lord to change my heart and my direction.

Using my past experience, it became clear to me that I should take care of my family and spend my energy in the business world — but this time working with Christian businesses with solid biblical principles.
Doors began to open for me helping develop new ventures in publishing, van conversions, a regional newspaper and other ventures such as working with legal firms and the courts to re-structure businesses in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. During that time I also began to work as a lay–counselor and conference leader through local churches and eventual involvement with Grace Fellowship International and later with Exchanged Life Ministries of Colorado where I served on the Board of Directors.

I continued in the business world for my income, continuing to work with both private and public companies. In 1986 I joined a group in Texas and I spent full time as one of the founders and as Senior Vice President for Rapha, Inc. which we headquartered in Houston. I established the national marketing program for our Christ-centered inpatient hospital program that grew beyond our imagination with more than 30 inpatient programs throughout the country. Lives were changed over those years—until insurance companies began to cut back our needed length of stay, which severely limited our time with patients until we were unable to effectively administer our program.

I eventually returned to my own outpatient clinics in Houston and San Antonio, Texas with my friend and Rapha partner Rick Surley. Rick and I went on to write a college textbook, “Counseling Theory and the Scriptures” which is used by Christian colleges and universities in their counseling programs.
We returned to Colorado in mid-1997, where my wife, who became a licensed counselor, and I continued to work with clients, mostly working together with couples on marriage and family issues.

I continue to write books that are available on amazon.com — and have always been active in my local church teaching adult Sunday school classes – always with a heavy emphasis on the power of God’s Word and the believer’s need to trust and depend on the love and faithfulness of our Heavenly Father for everything in life we need to rest in the Lord who alone is worthy of our trust.

In 2017, my wife and I retired from counseling and moved to Buena Vista in the beautiful Arkansas Valley of Colorado, where I continue to write, and help others write books for Christian growth. I also write Musings which are short two to three pages in length on topics that I have personally reflected on for personal edification. The Musings can all be found on this website and are free to those who are dedicated to “maturing in their understanding of our Creator God.”

Welcome to my world!
Roger