Kirk Cameron's new on-and-off-screen career

(CBS) If you remember Kirk Cameron only as Mike Seaver from "Growing Pains," you might not be aware that he has followed a whole new career path since that sitcom went off the air in the mid 1990s.

The 40-year-old former child star, who made headlines this week when he challenged physicist Stephen Hawking's claim there is no heaven, has a second career as minister and evangelist.

Cameron, who cliams to have found God when he was 17, is a partner in the evangelical ministry The Way of the Master. He and his wife, Chelsea, co-founded The Firefly Foundation, which sponsors camping trips for terminally ill children.

The father of six has hosted Christian television ministry on TBN and in 2007 took part in a televised debate with atheists Brian Sapient and Kelly O'Conner that aired on ABC's "Nightline."

His memoir, "Still Growing: An Autobiography" was released in 2008.