Two Men and a Little White Church on the Hill

(This is not the church but it sure resembles it.)

If there is one thing I have learned well since my walk with Jesus Christ began it is that He will never abandon His children to their own devices.

There are times when we may feel as though He has done so, but only because we falter in our trust that His watchful eye is ever upon us.  We think our prayers that rise to His throne are put at the bottom of the list of endless petitions by others with more urgent needs.  While in this state, we overlook His continuous diligence in mercies, His gracious provisions and promises, and the never-ending love and devotion that He daily pours out upon His children.  But when God does answer prayers in an obvious way, it is like having cold water splashed upon our face, reawakening the little faith and trust we do have.

My story begins with two churches - one, a miserable failure, the other in the process of failing - years of seeking and not finding fellowship in another church, constant prayer for a good one to be established in our community, and two men seemingly brought together for a purpose.  It is a long story, but I hope you will bear with me as I tell it.

About eight hears ago, the Pastor of our small Calvary Chapel decided he no longer wanted to maintain his role.  Nor did he have a desire to allow us the necessary time to find a replacement for him.  Within a few months of his decision, he closed the doors, sold the church (Calvary Chapel Pastors own the building) and gave the profit to another Calvary Chapel that is led by a friend of his 100 miles away, along with the library Steve and I had invested in, moved on to what he perceived as greener pastures, and tossed his flock into the wilderness to fend for themselves.  My husband, Steve, and I began what seemed a hopeless job of finding a suitable replacement.  Short of darkening the doors of churches we knew were not well-grounded and established in the Word of God (or were obvious cults), we attempted to find a new home in which we could be nourished and grow as Christians.

We followed our children to their churches but, as time went on, those also were found to be lacking.  It seemed that there was a contagion running rampant in our community, infecting the hearts of the church leaders and causing abandonment of their flocks; infiltration of the emergent/progressive movement; division; weak and ineffective preaching.  As the years went by and our prayers for a church continued, we filled our Sundays with sermons on CD’s mailed to us from our faithful “Shepherd in-absentia” who pastors our “home church” back in Washington state, TV and internet sermons from reliable Pastors, daily devotions, and more prayer.

Among the many churches we had twice visited was a non-denominational Community Church.  The former Pastor had successfully reached his goal of building it into one of the largest in our area (a “mini-mega church” of sorts, compared to our population), indebted the fellowship with a big new building to house them, then retired at a fairly early age.  In retrospect, it is a good thing that he did leave.  His message was an “inoffensive Gospel” that was more palatable to the ears of his congregation.  If I am recalling correctly, at least two new Pastors have come and gone over certain differences of opinion on what is preached and, more importantly, how it is delivered, as well as many of those who served the church.  They currently have employed a third Pastor.  This gives you a pretty good idea of what my husband and I were up against.  If we wanted to compromise, the choices of a church were plentiful.  But because we refused to bow to poor theology, doctrine, and deceptive New-Age garbage, as each Sunday came and went, we continued to stay at home and pray.

This past winter while at work, Steve wandered into the office of a fellow Christian, Mike, who had a visitor with him.  (Steve later told me he had no idea why he decided to poke his head in the door, but we agreed that God may have had a purpose for leading him there.)  Mike introduced the man as the Pastor of the Community Church.  Somewhere in their brief conversation, an invitation to visit it again must have been offered to Steve.  In Steve’s open, tell-it-like-it-is way, he bluntly asked the Pastor if his preaching was like his predecessor’s “dog and pony show.”  He went on to tell him that when he hears a sermon he wants to be “wounded,” to be fed, and to take away with him something to chew on and apply until the following Sunday.  Later, when he recalled the visit and told me what he had said, I laughed and replied that perhaps he could have chosen a more gentle approach.  Steve’s introduction to this Pastor was forgotten - until yesterday.

Almost every time I drive into the little town to the south of us, my eyes are drawn to the abandoned church on the knoll that once housed the Calvary Chapel we attended.  Mixed emotions always run through me as I recall how hard it was to watch it fail, the bitterness and how helpless the small congregation felt when it did, and how often I have prayed for another church to be planted there.  But as Steve and I drove by yesterday at noon on our way to do some laundry, I almost broke my neck when I saw a new sign that read “Grace Bible Church” and people flowing out of the door.  Turning to Steve, I said with excitement, “Wow!  Someone has started a new church!”  He continued to drive toward our destination where we put in our laundry, then killed a few minutes walking across the street to look at a used pickup.  When we got back inside the Laundromat, I said to him, “Let’s drive back and take a look.”

Two cars were still parked in front of the church.  I quickly jotted down the website that was written below the name and Steve continued driving up the street.  Half a block away, I told him to turn around and stop.  I was going to go inside and see for myself what was happening at this once-empty church building.

Mustering up the courage I seldom have to approach strangers, I walked up the steps past some children playing tag and through the door.  Three people were seated inside.  Two of them, a man and woman, I recognized but couldn’t recall from where.  The other man leaped to his feet and immediately held out his hand, introducing himself.

As our conversation began, I quickly explained our past with the little building, our desire to find a church here again, and the surprise we felt to see it occupied.  Within less than five minutes, it was revealed that the wife of the other man was my grandchildrens' Cub Scout leader, thus the reason I recognized her, my hands were joyfully shaken again and were filled with a church directory and a pile of studies by her excited husband.  I was told how the church had been established, and the direction it was heading.

Turning to the Pastor, I felt compelled to ask him pointed questions that would assure me a visit to hear him preach would not be wasted (I strongly advise everyone to have this conversation with a new church leadership before being drawn to attend.  Don't be afraid to have it because it settles matters before possible embarrassment or discomfort can occur over differences or disagreements).  My questions were direct, leaving nothing to conjecture, and mostly required a simple yes or no response.  They covered topics such as, “Do you teach a literal 6-day creation?”  “Salvation by Sovereign grace alone?”  “Premilleniamism and the Rapture?”  “Dispensationalism?” - just to name a few.  And with each question I asked, he quickly and readily responded and I received the answer I was seeking.

At one point, the Pastor offered me a chair.  Thanking him but declining, I told him my husband was waiting for me in the car.  I asked him how he had come to our town and he began telling me he moved here from Texas when he was hired to be the Pastor at the Community Church,  had been there three years but had resigned, and was officially beginning his new role in this church on May 1.  Suspicion crept slowly up in my mind until it suddenly dawned on me that the man I was speaking to was the same man Steve had met that day in Mike’s office!

Unable to help myself, I laughed and said, “I think you met my husband.”  With a certain amount of embarrassment, I told him the story Steve had told me.  “I hope he didn’t offend you,” I concluded.  What came next is something I will never forget.

“THAT was your husband?  I wasn’t offended at all!” he exclaimed with his own laughter.  He went on to explain that Steve was the initial driving force that compelled him to make the decision to leave the Community Church.  Apparently the congregation complained and the board asked him to stop preaching sin, repentance, and grace and start giving a more “pleasing” message so that outsiders would feel welcome and want to attend.  It became clear to me that the original Pastor’s watered-down-bring-’em-through-the-door-because-numbers-are-all-that-matter style was what they preferred.  And it was Steve’s “dog and pony show” comment that began to convict this man that he was in the wrong place and that a change was in order.

When I said my goodbyes to another hearty handshake and got back to the car, I told Steve he would never believe who the Pastor was.  Upon hearing, he jumped out of the car and went inside while I continued to visit with the other two people.  Steve stayed inside for a few minutes, and then we all went our separate ways with promises to visit after Easter.

On the drive back home, Steve relayed to me the Pastor’s words to him.  He told Steve that he went so far as to wonder if Steve wasn’t an angel sent to encourage him to leave his position at the Community Church (they got a chuckle out of that, and so did I!).  The final nail in the coffin was driven in his tenure there during a church board meeting when a church member wanted to do something that loudly spoke against the Pastor's conscience.  It was then that full conviction and obedience drove him, on the spot, to stand up and leave, once and for all.

As I listened to Steve tell his part of the conversation we had just had with this man, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the orchestration of all the events that had occurred over the last ten years.  I recalled the years of pleading with God to establish a church that men would allow Him to lead and that we could feel at home in with like-minded Christians; the desire to hear solidly mature expository preaching; to be fed and encouraged; to be able to fully worship; the emptiness I felt each Sunday.  It also brought to my own mind questions I began to ask myself. 

Was this brief encounter God’s way of showing us He had not abandoned us and left us to keep seeking on our own?

Did God bring Steve and this man together the first time only for the purpose of convicting him to leave his role as Pastor in a dead church, and the second time to merely let Steve know that he had?  Or did their two encounters mean much, much more?

What about the compelling desire I had to go back and enter the door of that church the same I way I did ten years ago when we first learned of the Calvary Chapel?

Is this the church we prayed about and have waited for all those years?

I could sit here and fill pages of events that surrounded and led us to yesterday’s encounter, both in Steve's and my life, as well as the others who were involved.  But I think you see my point and my possible excitement. 

We have waited a long time, but God did not abandon us.  It may be that He only needed two men - one from Texas and a bold, outspoken one from Donnelly, Idaho who had just started his new job and wasn't afraid to speak the truth - to meet each other through the obedience of another faithful Christian, and an empty little white church perched on a hill for a second encounter to complete His plan.

If our suspicions are correct, the timing and settings were for God to know and for Him to orchestrate over the course of what seemed to us like eight long years of having no church.  But what's eight years to God?  What comes next is for Steve and me to discover, and it could be exactly what we have been praying for.
http://www.gbccascade.org/index.html

Additional reading:

• Deuteronomy 31:6
• Joshua 1:5b
• Psalms 94:14
• Jeremiah 29:11
• John 10:3, 15, 27
• Hebrews 13:5b