Nick has been in ministry as a Church-Planter and Sr. Pastor since 1975. He came to Christ as an Atheist, through a supernatural conversion experience alone at home in Clearwater, FL one night in 1971. After encountering some Christians, he immediately joined an active fellowship and began studying and sharing the Gospel with others.
Nick married Kathy Avera in 1972. They had their first child, Heather 2 years later, and their second, Samuel, 3 years after that.
In the autumn of 1975 they moved to New Haven, CT to pioneer their first church. He was 21 years old when they founded His Way Ministries, the name later changed to Faith Christian Church. The fellowship began with about 30 people and quickly flourished. During the early years the church met at YALE University and attracted many students and faculty members from the undergrad and grad schools.
As the ministry grew so also did its outreaches, establishing a Bible College, daily radio program (The Sword Of The Spirit), a New England wide Pastors fellowship, and a monthly gathering called, The Believers Breakfast, that brought hundreds of people to Christ. Throughout the 70s and 80s Nick ministered frequently in area churches and conferences, and particularly in the Black community. The congregation of Faith Christian Church quickly blended racially as FCC became the first integrated church of its kind in the area. This unprecedented move paved the way for a great cross-cultural exchange that has led to many such inner-city churches now in the region. During the 1980s Nick began visiting West Africa, where he would eventually discover a whole new ministry in the years ahead.
In 1990 Nick and Kathy left behind a large, healthy church, returning to Clearwater to plant a new Faith Christian Church in Pinellas County. While serving as Sr. Pastor in Clearwater, he returned to Nigeria where he joined with Wilson Okotie, Founder of High Impact Christian Center (HICC), in a remarkable missions breakthrough among the unreached Ijaw Tribe. In 2002 Nick formed Nigeria-Ijaw Mission (NIM) in order to facilitate the training of Ijaw Pastors, planting churches, and building permanent worship centers in each community. Within the first 5 years, 10 churches have been established and built, in an authentic indigenous church-planting movement. The Ijaw Pastors are now training others and planting churches within their region, as NIM continues to pioneer churches in new communities. NIM provides the entire financial support for Pastor training, church building, conducting crusades, new church plants, and developing programs for opening schools and health care.
Today Nick and Kathy have 5 grandchildren and reside in Clearwater, FL where he continues as the Sr. Pastor of Faith Christian Church. Nick is also the author of TheLightWashedPath.com, and continues to lead teams to the Niger Delta, planting churches and conducting crusades.