Man Goes from Convict to Pastor of Kansas Megachurch

A Kansas megachurch has hired a recently exonerated man as an associate pastor after he spent 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

As a teen Darryl Burton forsook his childhood Baptist faith and placed little value on his grandmother's solemn warning that "one of these days, boy, you are going to need Jesus. I hope you remember to call on Him."

His grandmother's plea for Burton to seek Jesus amidst his increased disenchantment with the gospel during his teen years echoed the loudest in his mind when he found himself in a prison cell years later for a murder he did not commit.

During the 24 years of his false imprisonment, Burton transformed from an angry inmate still running away from God, to a man who finally heeded to his grandmother's words.

In a recent interview with The Christian Post, Burton explained that for "the first 15 years or so I was just trying to do everything in my own abilities. Of course, I was really angry and upset and really frustrated about my situation and being wrongfully imprisoned."

Burton described the moment when his only option was to listen to his grandmother.

"I said, 'Well, I have tried everything but God, what do I have to lose.' I just challenged Jesus - "If you're real, show me. If you help me, I will serve you and tell the world about you," he said.

With his newly made promise to God, Burton sent over 700 letters to lawmakers, activists, and lawmakers to petition the exoneration of the false murder conviction based on two prosecution witnesses who lied in their testimony.

After spending years behind the cold walls of a jail cell seeking legal assistance, Centurion Ministries, an organization that seeks to free wrongly convicted individuals from prison, helped Burton fight the eight-year legal battle that ended in his 2008 exoneration.

Although Burton spent more than 24 years wearing the chains of a wrongly convicted murderer, he does not blame God. Instead, he claims he relates with the biblical story of Joseph on a deeper level.

"I think God used the situation the same way with Joseph when Joseph was thrown in the prison and treated by his brothers in a way that was not right," he explained. "What man and human beings made for evil, God used for good. That's the way I look at it. I never blamed God, God didn't throw me in there."

For Burton, one of those goods was finding new faith in God with the aid of prison ministries and a man who relentlessly pleaded with him for seven years to accept Christ.

Burton told The Christian Post, "I tried to live without God before in my young life and now when I hear people talk about God, I am going to pay attention now."

Eight years later after his 2008 prison release, he kept the promise he made to Jesus in his jail cell to tell the world about Him. With his new found freedom he answered the call to become a pastor and completed seminary this past December.

Upon reflecting on his long journey from prisoner to pastor, Burton said, "I wanted to tell the world about God but only could write up a script like this."

"I had not imagination about anything that has happened in my life now," he explained.

Burton has not completely turned his back on prison as a free man just yet. With his new faith and job as a pastor he is dedicated to telling prisoners, the recently exonerated, and youth about the gospel.

"My role is just to be a humble servant and do whatever I am asked and whatever I am allowed to do," he explained. "I just want to speak to the world as I said to Jesus that I would tell the world about Him. Whatever I can do to just get this message across the globe."

Although he is keeping the promise he made to God in a prison cell as the associate pastor of a 22,000 member megachurch, Burton believes "the church is too small."

"Christ said to take it to all the nations of the Earth, so we still got work to do," he said.