Memorial Box Monday:Faith Baptist Church

Linny over at A Place Called Simplicity is doing a blog hop called Memorial Box Monday in which we remember when God has done abundantly more for us than we can ask or imagine. Just as God told the Israelites to build a pile of stones to remember what God has done for them, we are to build a memory box filled with God's exceptional blessings in our lives.

I have to admit I was a bit intimidated by reading her post and the amazing way God had prepared for her/her families need well in advance of the problem. But then I remembered...

January 2004

Thursday:

On a cold, Thursday morning in January, Jeff came home from a meeting of the leadership at our church in Spearfish. It was supposed to be a meeting for prayer and direction, but the leadership had come with other ideas unbeknownst to my husband. A confrontation ensued. Decisive action needed to be taken, and Jeff offered his resignation. A decision not made lightly or in the heat of the moment, but when his convictions met promises he couldn't make with a clear conscience his only recourse was to give up the ministry we had felt called to only 2 short years before. A place we felt would be our home for years to come.

Jeff came home and told me what had transpired. I wasn't totally surprised as the situation at the church had

been deteriorating for months, but I still wondered what our next step would be. I was surprised at the peace both Jeff and I felt at his decision to resign. We had moved into our newly built home only the year before and had 7 young children to care for along with baby number 8 due to arrive in August. Not the ideal time to be making changes of any sort let alone losing half our income, but we both had a sense of peace that this was the right decision. That God knew our situation and had a plan.

Jeff asked me to call the people who had built our home and see if they had any ideas on what we should do: list the house with a real estate agent or try to sell it ourselves? The woman we had worked closely with the year before in helping us build this home was saddened to here of our situation. Being a believer in Jesus herself, she had seen these situations happen more often than she liked to admit, but she had an idea. She asked what we were asking for the house. I stated the number we thought the home was worth based on what we "paid" for it and the improvements we had made in the year since moving in. She said she would call me back in a short while, but she thought she might have a buyer.

I was thrilled that we might get out from under our house loan, but I took this as confirmation that God had a plan for us. He had a direction he was moving us, and although I couldn't see the completed picture...I could see the pieces falling into place.

She called back later that day and told us the couple they had been planning to build a house for...a house identical to ours...would love to buy our home. The building process on their home had been delayed for a number of months for various reasons (and now we knew why!:) and they would like to come and see the house as soon as possible. *When they finally came to tour our home, the man said that every time he drove past our home on the way to the site where their new house was to be built, he'd tell his wife, "There's our house."*

I called and told Jeff who was at his other full time job~did I fail to mention he was bi-vocational...There are no part-time pastors...only not fully funded pastors so he supplemented our income by working another full-time job at a collections department. I let him know that the house was as good as sold. He was flabbergasted as was I and hardly knew what to say.

A further affirmation came through a phone call with a dear friend who was also married to a man in ministry. She had just heard an interesting story on the radio that seemed to especially apply to our situation regarding unhealthy churches. I went to the webiste she gave me and read through the list of symptoms of an unhealthy church and could readily see how what had happened happened. The leadership had fallen into some very unhealthy patterns and we were not the first victims~Jeff was the 20th pastor in a church that was only 30 years old. While Jeff took responsibility for his shortcomings, we could both see there were deeper issues that needed to be dealt with and we were no longer in a position to have any influence over the membership.

The Weekend

We continued on thru the weekend. Jeff preached what would be his final sermon at the church and then informed the congregation of his decision to resign. He offered to stay on and help until they found someone else, but the leadership called an emergency meeting. We went home and Jeff received a call a couple of hours later to remove his things by Friday and leave the key to the church on the desk. This seemed unnecessarily harsh and cold, but Jeff complied. We also found out sometime later that others in the church were advised not to have any contact with us...to make a clean break.

While we knew resigning was what he had to do, we didn't know where God was calling Jeff next. Jeff determined he was not going to go looking for another church. He would work however many jobs he needed to in order to support his family, but he was not going to look for another ministry position. If God wanted him in ministry, God would have to provide a place. Because frankly he was ready to be done with pastoring.

We made plans to move back to where the East side of the state where our families resided. Jeff could transfer with the company he worked for to a facility there as well. We had a little savings to draw on and would make plans accordingly.

Wednesday:

Plans were falling into place quickly and I wondered about a midwife. My dear friend Laurel lived near our hometown and a midwife delivered her last four babies. I gave her call and the conversation went something like this:

"Hey Laurel, I was wondering who your midwife is in Sioux Falls?"

"Why do you need a midwife in Sioux Falls?" She already knew we were expecting so that was not her question.

"Oh, I haven't told you that Jeff resigned from our church." I had told so many of our friends and family asking for prayer that I had forgotten who knew what. Plus since Jeff and I were originally from the same small town as Laurel's husband we thought they might have gotten word the old fashioned way...through the grapevine. :)

"Really? He should come pastor our church. AND we have a huge parsonage."

*Now I have to insert here that Laurel had said this before when we were at our 1st church and again when we were looking to leave for the current position Jeff had just resigned from.*

"Your church is looking for a pastor?"

"Yes. We have someone coming to preach in view of a call on Sunday, but we could still give your tape to the chairman of the search committee."

"I'll talk to Jeff and let him know."

I did get the name of her midwife before we hung up, but I could hardly wait to tell Jeff about this opportunity that came out of the blue.

When Jeff came home for lunch, I told him about the conversation with Laurel. He pondered the idea and said, "I felt God giving me the freedom to leave the denomination we are with. I've got a tape or two I can send. I'll talk to Darin and see where to send it and see what he recommends."

Later that day, Jeff determined to send the tape; not with any confidence that we would be called to Faith Baptist Church, but out of obedience to his promise to God...if He brought him an opportunity...he would walk through the door.

May 1st, 2004

3 1/2 months later

Anyone in ministry will recognize the short span of time between Jeff's resigning at one church and starting at another. A 3 1/2 month turnaround for pastor to find a new church is unheard of. Six months would be considered moving fast with upwords of a year to 18 months being more the norm. But God opened doors and we walked through them. Everything moved so quickly: we closed on our house in the middle of March, moved all of our belongings to the otherside of South Dakota and left most of them packed and in storage while we stayed with my parents for six weeks until we answered the call to Faith Baptist Church. And even though Jeff didn't start preach his first sermon there as pastor until the middle of May they let us move into the parsonage and get settled. Amazing.

We moved into a 7 bedroom parsonage. When Laurel said the church had a huge parsonage she was not kidding. The main floor held four bedrooms, 2 and a half bathrooms and super large dining room, a good sized kitchen, family and living rooms. The master bedroom alone was the size of our kitchen/dining/ living room in our other house. Absolutely huge. The basement was also finished and held another 3 bedrooms and a full bath along with two other living areas and several storage spaces.

We later found out that the house had been built in 1994, the year Jeff started Bible College. The Lord had planned the house of unusual size years ahead of the need (the current pastor at the time building commenced only had four children!)

The house was only the icing on the cake however; the real blessing, the above all that we could ask or imagine blessing was the church body themselves~loving, supportive, caring, gentle, genuine, generous, and gracious. A church not without problems...as where there are people there are problems...but a church filled with people who understand God's grace and readily extend it to others.

And I almost forgot, Jeff no longer had to be bi-vocational. He was now a fully funded pastor. Praise the Lord!

This post is excessively long, but long overdue. I needed the reminder of the great and mighty work God did in calling us to Faith Baptist Church. A reminder of the healing brought by God through the people here who have loved us wholeheartedly. I am so thankful to be a part of Faith Baptist Church.

I need to add more stones to my Memorial Box~more reminders of God's Faithfulness throughout my days.

Praising God as I live, love, and laugh,

Lori



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