David Templeton literally knows the lyrics of “Amazing Grace” forwards and backwards.

“Me like wretch a saved that sound the sweet how grace amazing,” he recites. “That’s just the first line. The second line sounds like something Yoda would say:  See I now but blind was, found am I now but lost was once I.”

That is just one of the delights to be found in his new solo show, “Wretch Like Me,” based on his adolescent years in Los Angeles County as a fundamentalist Christian.

The show plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the  Sonoma County Repertory Theater, 104 N. Main St., Sebastopol. ($12-$15. brownpapertickets.com.)

Templeton is a versatile guy: manager and artistic director of Santa Rosa’s Glaser Center, reviewer for the North Bay Bohemian, columnist for the Pacific Sun,  actor and playwright.

Basing his show on his real-life religious experiences — he was baptized three different times in different churches — he blurs and fictionalizes the identities of the key players.

So you meet characters like the Reverend Dude, minister of the Happy Chapel, who found his faith while tripping on magic mushrooms and met the devil in the form of a talking fly.

For two weekends last month, Templeton performed a workshop production of the show, directed by David Yen, at the Glaser Center. He was pleased to see good-sized audiences and hear high praise, and surprised that even religious people weren’t offended by the show.

“Those people felt that, at the end of the story, when I come to the wrong conclusion and leave the church, it’s very sad,” Templeton said.

“But they felt that I actually treat the people with quite a bit of respect and I really tried to do that. Also, there’s lots and lots of laughter.”