Never, ever choose a church to join solely because it is close to your home and you won't have to travel so far. Never.
Many years ago back before God had called me away from the big business
world, my family had for months thought about finding a new church to
attend. The one we regularly went to was
several miles away, so far in fact that only a couple of the people we knew in
our town attended the same church. We
had long thought it would be good to go to a church attended by others in our
neighborhood and town. Finally, we
decided to act. One Sunday we attended
the morning service at a nearby church and found it warm and enjoyable. We came back the next week, and the
next. The services were emotionally
moving. The minister often brought
people to tears with his dramatic sermons.
Always, the church was packed.
And, it was so close to home.
Soon we participated in the required classes for new members, and we
officially joined together with several other newcomers. All the new members were friendly. We even held a dinner for the group in our
home.
Alas, we had been too quick. We
had not thoroughly examined this new church.
Worse, we certainly hadn’t prayed enough before taking such an important
step.
In a Sunday service not long after becoming a member, I noticed that
the words to some classic hymns had been changed. My wife confirmed the observation. We saw this happen again and again over the
next several weeks, and we asked others who joined with us if they were
noticing these changes. They were.
What’s more, the pastor’s interpretation of scripture from the Bible
proved to be disturbing. One Sunday he
revealed his opinion that each person could decide for him or herself whether
to accept specific passages of scripture as truth. He thought it fine to agree with some
portions of the Bible but not with others.
In a few weeks there were additional discoveries concerning questionable
behavior taking place in one of the two parsonages owned by the church.
How could we be members of such an organization? What kind of an influence was this pastor on
us, on others?
Most who had recently joined decided to leave. It was either that or fight for a change, and
the new members didn’t think that action an appropriate course for them. We did pray, many times, before making a
decision to leave, and we began visiting other churches. Attending any of these required riding
several miles but that was no longer a concern.
In the course of our leaving the church we had so recently joined, the
pastor there called one day and asked to come for a visit. When he arrived, we showed him into the
living room. My wife, the pastor, and I
all sat on an L-shaped sofa, the pastor in the middle. It was soon clear he wanted to convince us
that we were wrong in our decision, that we were being judgmental. He was very defensive.
As we talked, our adult male cat, a wonderful gray and white that had
been with us for ten years, walked into the room. Fluffy always was on his best behavior when
guests were around. In fact, he was
always on good behavior, never getting on the furniture or bothering
anyone.
This particular day Fluffy slowly approached the sofa, rubbing past my
wife’s leg on his way as he always did.
Staying close by the edge of the sofa, he proceeded to the spot where
the pastor sat. In one quick moment,
while we continued with our discussion and barely noticed the cat, Fluffy
stopped over the foot of the pastor and proceeded to relieve himself right on
top of the pastor’s shoe.
The gasps from the three of us were clearly audible. For a moment all our mouths were open but no
words were spoken. Never had Fluffy done
that before, nor did he ever do that again.
My wife and I quickly moved to clean up the mess. The pastor uttered only a few more words and
then departed. I still smile about that
day when God used our cat to make a point in a language that could not be
ignored.
At least two obvious lessons were taught by this entire
experience. First, no one should ever
choose a church for so superficial a reason as its being close to home. And the second? God has a sense of humor.
Copyright © 2017 by John Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied,
printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or
forwarded in its entirety with appropriate attributions included (including the
copyright and the ministry contact information). It may also be quoted in
part as long as appropriate attributions are given. We in fact encourage
you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who you know would
benefit and do not have access to computers.]
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
P. O. Box 15797,
Wilmington, NC 28408 910 395
1465 www.johnnewlinministries.org
