The Local Church

My Testimony

I am the youngest of four boys, from a definitive evangelical family. My father was a respected church leader and combination chaplain, administrator, house parent and counselor at two different “Boys Ranches”, first in Texas, and then in Montana. Mom was a talented soloist who complimented Dad's ministry through her singing and support. The four boys naturally grew up with a commitment to Christ and a sense of duty to minister the message of salvation to all with whom we would come in contact. My father died when I was seven, and my two older brothers were soon gone to college, leaving my mom, next older brother and myself to embark on a relatively new life. We were highly involved in an evangelical denomination, and though I'm sure my mom's love for, and commitment to the Lord was a driving force in our continued involvement, there is no doubt that she leaned on the denomination in her appeal to the Lord for assistance in raising her boys.

In hindsight, I'm so grateful for the care the Lord extended to our family, and the nurture and protection I enjoyed during those formative years through the ministry of numerous youth leaders and one particularly caring pastor. The law, or the focus on being good to merit our free gift of salvation was undoubtedly a strong influence in my youth (i.e. the school master/custodian of Galatians 3:24). During this period of the late 60's and early 70's, two of my older brothers had become involved with the local churches and I had attended several meetings and one memorable conference in Los Angeles; I say memorable because, as a young teen, I was so unaccustomed to the manner in which the meeting took place. Add to this, the gross misrepresentation of the teachings of the local churches by my mentor/pastor, one can easily see why I steered clear of the local church for over twenty years.

As I grew, married a marvelous gal and started a family, I eventually found myself in an enormously deep spiritual rut. My wife was picking up where the schoolmaster had left off with ongoing reminders of how I was failing to honor my vow to be a spiritual leader in our family. After years of my retreating and resisting my wife's and others' exhortations, the Lord was gracious to prompt a renewed interest in Him, and I began to take more initiative for myself in sincerely pursuing the Lord often at His strong leading through various difficulties/trials. I began to meet with several men from a Bible church which my wife and I had begun attending only a few blocks from our home. The corporate experience of these men had been one of aggressively pursuing the abundant life spoken of so frequently by the pastor, by attending every prayer meeting and study group, and by attempting to hold the rather strict standards set forward by the leadership. It would seem that our common experience was one of disappointment and frustration at the fruitlessness of such efforts and a desire to be honest with each other about that fact. None of us wished to abandon the Lord. We simply wished to meet with other seeking believers in an atmosphere of honesty, rather than the charade of spiritual maturity and piety, which typified our experience thus far. What followed could only be described as spiritually revolutionary. We enjoyed hours of singing, sharing our own enjoyment from the Word, and praying for each other and our families. In the end this was rewarding to our families, but highly threatening to the leadership of the Bible church, and we attempted to tone down our excitement so as not to create a problem there.

I could go on for quite some time discussing the process by which the Lord gained my wife and me through this fellowship, but let me condense it in the following manner. Much of what our men's group was enjoying began to sound familiar to me, and after years of avoiding the teaching in the local churches I realized the Lord had brought me back to the basic issues such as locality, pray-reading, the living (organic) body of Christ, eating from the tree of life rather than the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the economy, the plan, of God.

That portion of my life is now nearly ten years old, and the Lord has brought us to the fellowship of the church in Billings where we have been blessed to share a large vision of the Lord's purpose and Body. My view of the Lord and His Body/the Church (Ephesians 1:22-23) has become so much bigger than before; including all fellow Christians. The Scriptures have taken on far greater meaning as they have begun to reveal Christ in each and every page. I yearn now to be a member of Christ's lovely bride, clothed in His righteousness, together with all the other believers, giving Him what He desires, rather than seeking only my own welfare as an individual Christian (Revelation 21:2, 9-10).

L.O. | Back to List

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