More Vision for Church

     After going through the hippie thing I became a Christian in 1974. I became a believer after my wife and I visited a friend who had become a Christian. I believed in Jesus because the Holy Spirit touched me and not because our friend talked me into it.

Just married! 1974

     I didn't have any idea what it meant to follow Christ. I had some religious background because I went to a Baptist church as a teenager. The Pastor there was an evangelist but he was also older and should have retired many years before he did. So every Sunday instead of teaching the Bible, he tried to save everyone in the church, even though except for a few of the kids every one else had already believed in Christ.

     My wife and I started to read the Bible to find out what Church and the Christian walk was supposed to be like. When we read the Bible we were surprised to find out that it wasn't just a place to go sit on a pew on Sunday. It was supposed to be an interactive, use-your-gifts type of meeting. So when we started looking for a church it wasn't an easy task because most of the churches we visited didn't fit with what we felt like the Bible was talking about.

     We did find a church that was more interactive. It was a church that allowed men that the pastor was discipling to teach on some Sundays and it had what we now call "open worship". If someone felt like the Holy Spirit wanted them to lead out in a song, when there was a brief pause they would just start singing or shout out the name of the song. Usually someone would lead out with the song in the worship time. It was not chaotic at all, the Spirit-led flow was amazing.

      We had an "open mic" for part of the time where people would give testimonies or ask for prayer. As a new believer I felt guilty because I smoked cigarettes. I had tried to quit many times with no success. One day when I was in church the Lord spoke to me and told me to go forward and ask for prayer. When I did, the Lord set me free and now I haven't smoked for nearly 40 years.
     I want to let everyone know that I don't hate other types of churches. It is not my intention to stir people up to hate their churches or their leaders. I hope more to stir up churches to use the gifts and let the "Body of Christ" function in the way that God intended.
     Now I have walked with Jesus for around 42 years and still desire to see churches where many people can be involved in ministry and participate in meetings. There are different movements in the world today where people are planting churches with the intention of people using their gifts. Many of these churches are growing by the thousands and from studies they are still able to do a quality work. I will talk more about spiritual growth and about these types of churches in future blogs.

 

Bruce Isom