The Blessings I Have Received from the Churches I have Attended

I started to think about my spiritual journey over my life and was struck by a thought… how fortunate I had been in belonging to two churches that have been and are now being lead by really great Christian examples. The “pastors” of these two churches have blessed me, enlarged my faith, challenged me to learn and have comforted me in wonderful ways.

The Intellectual

I began going to the First United Methodist Church in Richardson, Texas shortly after moving to Richardson about 15 years ago. Keaton was in first grade and Sarah must have been about 3-4 years old. We went for the kids, and thankfully God was there waiting to help me too.

It would be another 5 years before I stood up for Jesus, but the time spent at FUMCR was far from a spiritual loss for this sinner. I was baptized in the church along with the kids. My heart felt awful at this time in my life as I knew how troubled I was personally and how far away I felt from God. Over time, as I went to more and more sermons given by my first “pastor” - David Shawver - God began to reach me as I was entranced by his sermons. The sermons appealed to me on an intellectual level that I had never experienced before. I started to understand the reasons why God worked and could work in my life. I was being drawn into God without my asking for it or understanding even the most basic of reasons.

After I came to Christ, got divorced and Suzy began to go to church with me, she too was taken by David’s sermons. But most of all she was taken in by his kindness to her and his unconditional acceptance of both of us into the church. For that and the encouragement of other members of FUMCR we became dedicated to working in the church wherever and whenever we could.

David would officiate at our wedding as well. We actually took some pre-marital counseling. It was really a wonderful experience for us. Most of all I remember David telling us how he had been told early in his marriage to open the car door of his wife each and every time they got in the car together. I have done this now for the last eight years with Suzy. Every time I do so, I remember David and can feel his positive impact in our lives.

The Comforter

We became active members of FUMCR helping with the land purchase drive. Shortly after the completion of this successful campaign, David Shawver retired. Suzy and I were concerned because we so much loved coming to the church and hearing David. We didn’t know enough about churches to know that FUMCR was a really important church to Methodism and that the successor would be well chosen. Clayton Oliphint began his ministry and quickly became a powerful presence and loved part of the church.

Over the remaining years of our active membership in the church we came to know Clayton in almost every imaginable circumstance that arises in the modern church today: Sunday services, outreach ministries, weddings, events and funerals. Every time we would see, meet and greet Clayton, we felt comforted by him. A word of kindness and quick question in his hurried day asking us how we were, simple courtesies that made us feel wanted and appreciated in the church.

We also got to see Clayton at a number of funerals. In the 4 months prior to our leaving Dallas we had two friends die and attended the funerals. Both were friends of ours from teaching Disciple Bible classes. We had shared a lot with them and were devastated by their deaths. Clayton performed these ceremonies with the utmost of humility and kindness to the families and friends. We felt greatly comforted by his presence in these troubled times.

Clayton was also a great teller of jokes and his “top 10 list” will be greatly missed even if we did groan any number of times during the telling, which of course was part of the fun.

The Challenger

So we arrived in the Vail Valley, well technically Eagle Valley, and didn’t really look for a church to join or participate in for a number of months. Both of us could feel the lack in our lives. That changed the Sunday we walked into the Vail Church. For those of you that did not read that posting, please go here to read about our experience:

Since that day we have attended the Vail Church every Sunday we have been in town. The church is lead by Craig Smith. He is powerful and charismatic speaker recounting his personal foibles as a way to connect with his sheep by letting them know he is not perfect. The one he recounted last week about his middle school days and being a part of a “Michael Jackson inspired moonwalking dance team” was hilarious and reminded me of my own pre-teen and teenage years.

The message that day dove through scripture that I had heard used before, but his message was on target and original in concept to any other description of this text I had ever heard. I’m still chewing on some of the subtleties of the text and how I had missed it after numerous readings of my own.

(To hear this sermon, “He Calms Storms” and others, click here are download the MP3 file.)

But over the last two months as I have come to know Craig, he has also challenged me to read more. After I told him I had read Dietrich Bonhoefer, he loaded me up with 3 other, as he called them: “seminary style” books to continue my reading and educating myself on the word.

He also has challenged me to write more. I demurred saying I had been busy and that I had not been able to carve out time to do so.

He called me on it.

So here I am tonight putting into action his challenge to find a consistent time to write. As I thought about it, I decided Sunday nights were the best time to write. One, it is the Sabbath. How can I better honor God than to write these words on this special day so that I can grow nearer to Him. Two: Tomorrow’s work day will have worries of its own. Give that worry up to God as he will always guide me through. With this writing I gain peace and understanding of what my role is in being a Christian through these words that I write for His Glory.

And for now I offer these words to 3 men who have been leaders in the churches I have attended. I have been blessed to have such wonderful, caring and gloriously imperfect men to help me find my way: Thank you and may God bless you and continue you in your journeys in helping everyone you touch draw nearer to Christ.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Methodism, RMC, Vail Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.