Foreman was working his way back toward the title when he lost to Jimmy Young in 1977. In the locker room afterward, he had an encounter with God: "I believe in you," he said, "but not enough," according to a 2003 interview on BeliefNet. He became enclosed in what he describes as "a deep dark nothing over my head, under me, all around me was just a dump yard of every sad thought I ever had in my life, multiplied like nothing." He responded to the darkness, "I don't care if this is death, I still believe there's a God." A hand lifted him out of the darkness and he came to on the table in the room, "and I started screaming words I never screamed before that Jesus Christ was coming alive in me. And I jumped in the shower started screaming 'Hallelujah, I'm clean, I'm born again, I'm going out to save the world!' and they said, 'You better put on some clothes first.'"

He became an ordained minister and returned to North Houston, where he joined the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, reports The Daily Record. When the congregation began to break apart in 1980 he stepped into the breach and brought it back again as its pastor, and established his passion project, a youth center.

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