I am not quite sure how old I was the day that my world view was changed. My sister is seven years older than I am. And on this particular Sunday, as was the case whenever my sister came home from college to visit, my dad would have to drive her back to the college for the beginning of the next week's classes.
I do not remember if I was asked to go along, or was told I was going, but the trip to her college usually took about an hour and a half to drive. My sister, was the oldest sibling in the family. Her name was Marsha and I was very proud of her. I would have never told her so, however, since there was a little sibling rivalry taking place between us; at least there was in my mind. I was probably 12 or 13 years old and she was probably in her sophomore or junior year at Georgetown College.
Georgetown College was in Georgetown, Kentucky. Georgetown , at the time, was a small college town near Lexington, Kentucky. It has since grown in population and fame. Its population and fame changed practically overnight when the Toyota Motor Corporation chose to locate a new car plant there to make the Camry. However, before they chose to locate their newest car plant there, most people would have never heard of the town or the college.
I do not recall how the conversation on this particular trip was turned to the question of the existence of God, but it did. I was a very arrogant, know it all kid. I had become quite the bookworm by this time in my life. I had been introduced to a love for reading from a teacher in elementary school. And as with many endeavors in my life, when I do something, I do it to an extreme. The inflated opinion of myself ,intellectually, was won from the many victories, while playing head games with peers. There were very few that had read as many books as I had. I was the perfect walking example of the foolish kid "who thought he knew it all".
The arrogance and the smugness that I had about what I believed was in full display in the car that Sunday, once the conversation turned to the existence of God. I knew what I knew, and I was going to prove it. I knew there was no God. Somewhere along my journey of devouring all the books, I had become an atheist. My parents had quit attending church when I was nine or ten years old. So the only influence I was receiving about world view issues was through books, newspapers, television shows and school.
I started my case for the non-existence of God by telling my sister there was no proof that he did exist. I pointed out to her, that scientists could not find him, that he had no address where we could go visit him, or no phone number where we could call him. I went on to tell her that no one that I was friends with, actually believed in God.
My sister, easily defeated this assertion, she had already had a philosophy class or two at college. Arguing with her was not going to be as easy as arguing with my class-mates at school. She simply pointed out that I could not prove that he did not exist. Trust me, I tried. She replied, "have you been every where in the universe and made sure he was not there". Of course, I had no retort worthy to refute this simple statement of hers. I countered, well if he exists, how come he does not make himself visible to every one? She gave me no direct answer to this question, other than pointing out there were those in the religious community that believed he had revealed and made himself visible. My sister was not a practicing Christian either back then. But she did want to win the debate with me. We both were a little competitive. This is the point in the debate/conversation where she went on the offensive. It probably was relatively easy for her. After all, she had those classes in philosophy at school to augment her knowledge base and simple strategy to prove me wrong. My sister stated in basic terms the cosmological argument or causal argument for the existence of God. I am pretty sure she did not use those names for the premise to her argument, but she did ably present her case. The cosmological argument, stated simply, is that every effect has a cause. In our world, we can see constant confirmation of this simple premise. In nature, for example, if a predator is hungry, it motivates the predator to hunt for prey. If the animal is thirsty, it searches for a drink. If an acorn falls from a tree, and lands on good soil, with adequate rain, it will become an oak tree. If the tectonic plates shift hard enough and fast enough there will be a sizable earthquake. These four examples of effects, each have a previous causal factor that initiated the action. Hunger, thirst, the wind blowing through the trees and the shift of the tectonic plates are the immediate causal factors for the action that took place in our examples. My sister then made several observations of the relationship between cause and effect. She pointed out that the universe could not have created itself. There had to be a cause for it to spring into existence. I had no reply to her simple argument, other than to say, "well then, who created God"? Her comeback, though I did not like it, again was simple. She pointed out it would be irrational to believe that there was an endless series of regressions of creators creating the next creator. At some point, some entity outside of the chain of creators and creations, had to be completely and wholly other than the endless stream of regressions of creators and creations. This entity, this first cause, had to be the "uncaused" cause. She said this is what we call God.
So I had a choice to make. I had to decide if staying an atheist made sense. I asked her what did it mean to her that there had to be a first cause. She said that she felt that it made more sense to be an agnostic. I had never heard the word used before. To be an agnostic she stated, means to acknowledge that there is not enough evidence to disprove there is a God. She said an agnostic simply questioned his existence. So I became an agnostic that day.
I did not stay an agnostic for long, that changed a few years later, when I accepted Jesus as God and Savior, but that is another story.
If you want to read more about the cosmological argument simply insert the words into Google or click the title of this blog and it will take you to an embedded link that has an academic article.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Holy Ghost Bartender and Holy Laughter
It was circa 1993 at Louisville Trinity Church. My wife and I had been remarried for about two years. We both had become involved in serving in the church. Primarily, we both served in the nursery on a regular basis. But, I had decided to start helping with the altar ministry team. The task that I volunteered for was called “catching”. For most of you that are unfamiliar with the Charismatic and Pentecostal style worship services, the ministry at the altar where people are prayed for is one of the most iconic aspects of these churches. It is very common in these types of churches for the pastor or visiting evangelists to make an altar call. During these altar calls, several needs would be mentioned for people to be prayed over for. Usually, there was more than one need mentioned, to ensure the altar was full with people. The altar call is as much a part of a Charismatic/Pentecostal worship service, as preaching and singing. The regular attendees of these meetings would not believe they have actually had church, unless the show at the altar takes place somewhere in the service. Usually, at Louisville Trinity Church, the altar call was at the end of the service, but it could me made at any time the minister felt the leading of the Spirit or the anointing to do it. The anointing was a word that may have had a legitimate meaning in the Old Testament Jewish ceremonies, but as the word was understood in the modern Charismatic movement, the anointing was that special presence of the Holy Spirit that the minister sensed upon him when he was either preaching or praying. Specifically, the real meaning of the words to anoint meant to literally take oil and place it on the person being “anointed” to symbolize the setting apart of that person for a special task. For example, in the Old Testament, Samuel “anointed” both Saul and David to be King of Israel. The words to anoint also could be used in the sense of applying a healing salve to a wound. However, in the Pentecostal/Charismatic churches the word “anointing” came to mean the literal, and this is important, “transferable presence” of the Holy Spirit. So when the minister or ministers were praying for people at the altar, the belief was that when the ministers laid their hands on you, you received, “the anointing”, the presence of the Holy Spirit, to heal you, or meet whatever need you had come to the altar to receive ministry for. Subsequently the person being prayed for would be “slain in the Spirit”. To be “slain in the Spirit” meant that the power of the Holy Spirit had come on the individual being prayed for, so powerfully, that the person would fall back or collapse under the encounter with the Holy Spirit’s presence. So this “falling back” was why the “catchers” were much needed in the Charismatic/Pentecostal worship services. The unspoken truth was that if we were not back there catching people as they fell, they would be hurt, or even knocked out. In my experience catching people at the altar, you would see all sorts of strange ways for people to “fall out” under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Some of the people would fall back immediately, some after several minutes of praying would fall back, so you had to always be ready to catch, and some would either be pushed down, or just refuse to go down.
That was what I understood about the process up to and until Rodney Howard Browne was invited to hold a week long conference at our church in 1993. Mr. Browne was not well known at this point. He had emigrated from South Africa, because, as he said, God told him to. He was to bring the special anointing that God had placed on him to America and “impart” it to the church here. Mr. Browne’s ministry was already gaining attention within Charismatic/Pentecostal circles, but he still was not so big that he could not come to a church the size of Louisville Trinity Church. The sanctuary held 300 to 350 people. I personally had not heard of Mr. Browne. I do remember though, that we held special training sessions for the catchers before he came. I soon found out why. The plan was for Mr. Browne to hold meetings both morning and night for the best part of a week. There was one day that was planned as a rest day. I was working at the time, for a company called Blue Bird Pies and Cakes, as a route salesman. So, I was not able to be at the morning services. I remember the first meeting that I attended the first night well. I loved to hear great preaching. I still do. So after a very long and protracted time of praise and worship, with the mesmerizing and continuous repeating of verses to songs being accomplished, Mr. Browne stepped up to the pulpit. I expected a great sermon. I really did. I had heard what a great preacher he was. During the whole week that I attended every night service, I never saw him complete his actual sermon. The part of his ritual that he employed as he stepped to the pulpit every night that he did complete was the “offering sermon”. Mr. Browne, would preach the offering sermon, as long or longer, than most churches real sermon would ever last. He was so polished, and so persuasive in his offering sermons, that the offering that was received for that meeting was the largest that had ever been taken up for a visiting evangelist up to that point in the church’s history. It was well over 5000 dollars. Our weekly offerings barely came close to this amount, at the time. So, once the offering sermon was complete, Mr. Browne would announce his sermon passage, and we would turn to it, and then he would talk about all that God was doing in his ministry. He would tell us funny stories, tell us funny jokes, and then he would start laughing, or one of the congregation would start laughing, and that would start the next hour to hour and a half of some of the strangest sites I had ever seen any where. People would begin laughing in greater and greater numbers, and some would start to fall out on the floor, and roll in it, totally forgetting their dignity, laughing and laughing uncontrollably. Mr. Browne, would always begin with these first “drunk in the Spirit” individuals, and start interviewing them, asking them how they felt. He would get them to say silly things, and people would laugh all the more. Finally, when he would be done talking with them, or so you thought, he would lay hands on them, and say “be filled, be filled, be filled, and on and on until they reached an even more “drunken state in the Spirit”, and they would fall. Of course at this point, the catchers would catch the falling individuals. The “anointing” was so strong that even the catchers would start to fall out drunk in the Spirit. The “show” would go on, like I said for at least another hour and a half. Once this point in the service was reached, almost all the individuals in the congregation would be laughing uncontrollably. People would be lying all over the floor in the entire sanctuary, laughing uncontrollably. Whole pews of people would be laying all over each other laughing uncontrollably. This was the normal “manifestations” that you would witness every night, however, some of the people would behave even more bizarre than this, howling, mimicking women giving birth, with rhythmic gyrations, and others would be praying loudly in the tongues. It was a shear carnival of bizarre things to see. And this occurred in the sanctuary every night. This was better than anything you were going to see on network television, and probably anything you would see on cable too.
At the end of the bizarre service, Mr. Browne would make the final altar call for anyone who had any need. This was the point when the whole front of the sanctuary would be lined up with people seeking prayer. But, when Mr. Browne would pray for these people, they did not fall back like we were usually use to, they went down very fast and very hard.
One night Mr. Browne was moving so quickly we could not keep up with him. There was 5 to 7 of us catching and plus some of his team helping. He got ahead of his catchers, I was one of them, and a lady fell out and hit a metal chair with the back of her head. It was loud. And I could see she was hurt. We were all afraid to touch her. We were just hoping at that point, that it was really God, who took her down. It was the only way she would not be hurt after such a strike on her head. She laid there for at least 10 minutes. I now believe she was knocked completely silly. I know she was talked to later by the leaders of the church. They knew she was hurt. They were afraid she might sue them.
And this brings me to my summary of the whole affair. I doubted every thing that had taken place that week. I struggled with it for years. That is the sad part. I mean years. I meditated about what had happened and could come to no other conclusion than that it was all fraud using the power of suggestion or even worse demonic. I knew a little about mass audience dynamics and hypnosis techniques because I had read about it before. The only conclusion that I could possibly come up with is that Mr. Browne was the best hypnotist and audience manipulator ever, or it was not of God, and therefore demonic. Real bizarre things occurred, that were being done by very respectable people, who if they saw themselves on video tape would be forever embarrassed. I finally did meet with the Pastor and express my struggle with it all. He soothed me by asking me, do I want him to be my Pastor or my Pope? To restate it another way, he asked me, did I expect him to be infallible. He suggested that I “eat” what I like about his ministry, and spit out the rest. So I did. I wound up staying at the church all the way to 2008. By then the church had its third Pastor who started pastoring in about 1997. I will tell more about my journey through the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement in the next blog.
That was what I understood about the process up to and until Rodney Howard Browne was invited to hold a week long conference at our church in 1993. Mr. Browne was not well known at this point. He had emigrated from South Africa, because, as he said, God told him to. He was to bring the special anointing that God had placed on him to America and “impart” it to the church here. Mr. Browne’s ministry was already gaining attention within Charismatic/Pentecostal circles, but he still was not so big that he could not come to a church the size of Louisville Trinity Church. The sanctuary held 300 to 350 people. I personally had not heard of Mr. Browne. I do remember though, that we held special training sessions for the catchers before he came. I soon found out why. The plan was for Mr. Browne to hold meetings both morning and night for the best part of a week. There was one day that was planned as a rest day. I was working at the time, for a company called Blue Bird Pies and Cakes, as a route salesman. So, I was not able to be at the morning services. I remember the first meeting that I attended the first night well. I loved to hear great preaching. I still do. So after a very long and protracted time of praise and worship, with the mesmerizing and continuous repeating of verses to songs being accomplished, Mr. Browne stepped up to the pulpit. I expected a great sermon. I really did. I had heard what a great preacher he was. During the whole week that I attended every night service, I never saw him complete his actual sermon. The part of his ritual that he employed as he stepped to the pulpit every night that he did complete was the “offering sermon”. Mr. Browne, would preach the offering sermon, as long or longer, than most churches real sermon would ever last. He was so polished, and so persuasive in his offering sermons, that the offering that was received for that meeting was the largest that had ever been taken up for a visiting evangelist up to that point in the church’s history. It was well over 5000 dollars. Our weekly offerings barely came close to this amount, at the time. So, once the offering sermon was complete, Mr. Browne would announce his sermon passage, and we would turn to it, and then he would talk about all that God was doing in his ministry. He would tell us funny stories, tell us funny jokes, and then he would start laughing, or one of the congregation would start laughing, and that would start the next hour to hour and a half of some of the strangest sites I had ever seen any where. People would begin laughing in greater and greater numbers, and some would start to fall out on the floor, and roll in it, totally forgetting their dignity, laughing and laughing uncontrollably. Mr. Browne, would always begin with these first “drunk in the Spirit” individuals, and start interviewing them, asking them how they felt. He would get them to say silly things, and people would laugh all the more. Finally, when he would be done talking with them, or so you thought, he would lay hands on them, and say “be filled, be filled, be filled, and on and on until they reached an even more “drunken state in the Spirit”, and they would fall. Of course at this point, the catchers would catch the falling individuals. The “anointing” was so strong that even the catchers would start to fall out drunk in the Spirit. The “show” would go on, like I said for at least another hour and a half. Once this point in the service was reached, almost all the individuals in the congregation would be laughing uncontrollably. People would be lying all over the floor in the entire sanctuary, laughing uncontrollably. Whole pews of people would be laying all over each other laughing uncontrollably. This was the normal “manifestations” that you would witness every night, however, some of the people would behave even more bizarre than this, howling, mimicking women giving birth, with rhythmic gyrations, and others would be praying loudly in the tongues. It was a shear carnival of bizarre things to see. And this occurred in the sanctuary every night. This was better than anything you were going to see on network television, and probably anything you would see on cable too.
At the end of the bizarre service, Mr. Browne would make the final altar call for anyone who had any need. This was the point when the whole front of the sanctuary would be lined up with people seeking prayer. But, when Mr. Browne would pray for these people, they did not fall back like we were usually use to, they went down very fast and very hard.
One night Mr. Browne was moving so quickly we could not keep up with him. There was 5 to 7 of us catching and plus some of his team helping. He got ahead of his catchers, I was one of them, and a lady fell out and hit a metal chair with the back of her head. It was loud. And I could see she was hurt. We were all afraid to touch her. We were just hoping at that point, that it was really God, who took her down. It was the only way she would not be hurt after such a strike on her head. She laid there for at least 10 minutes. I now believe she was knocked completely silly. I know she was talked to later by the leaders of the church. They knew she was hurt. They were afraid she might sue them.
And this brings me to my summary of the whole affair. I doubted every thing that had taken place that week. I struggled with it for years. That is the sad part. I mean years. I meditated about what had happened and could come to no other conclusion than that it was all fraud using the power of suggestion or even worse demonic. I knew a little about mass audience dynamics and hypnosis techniques because I had read about it before. The only conclusion that I could possibly come up with is that Mr. Browne was the best hypnotist and audience manipulator ever, or it was not of God, and therefore demonic. Real bizarre things occurred, that were being done by very respectable people, who if they saw themselves on video tape would be forever embarrassed. I finally did meet with the Pastor and express my struggle with it all. He soothed me by asking me, do I want him to be my Pastor or my Pope? To restate it another way, he asked me, did I expect him to be infallible. He suggested that I “eat” what I like about his ministry, and spit out the rest. So I did. I wound up staying at the church all the way to 2008. By then the church had its third Pastor who started pastoring in about 1997. I will tell more about my journey through the Word of Faith/Prosperity movement in the next blog.
My Walk Into and Out of the Word of Faith Movement, Part 1
Louisville Trinity Church. The church was solidly in the Word of Faith camp in its theology. The church was founded in 1971, during the height of the Full Gospel Movement. A Southern Baptist preacher in Fern Creek, Kentucky was filled with the Holy Spirit and he chose not to hide it from his congregation. There were shock waves to say the least in this Southern Baptist Church. The fall-out led to a church business meeting to vote on kicking the newly Spirit-filled Pastor out. The whole affair was contentious to say the least. I know some of the history of this event for two reasons. First, years later I became a member of the new church that was born as a result of this meeting, and secondly my parents were members of the church called, Fern Creek Baptist, when it all took place. I later heard from an older member of the new church that my dad had lost it, at one point, and was out in the foyer, screaming, “throw those tongue-talkers out”. The vote that was taken, Southern Baptists have a congregational form of church government, actually came out in favor of the Pastor. There was a good majority of the members who stood with him. However, the Pastor chose to resign, even though he had won the vote, and start a new church.
The new church that he started immediately had many more people attending it, than the original Southern Baptist Church. They had a gathering place problem, right from the beginning. They eventually bought property on a country road off the main road, and began building their new church building. The church was first called Trinity Baptist Church. For ten years, the church was pastored by the original Southern Baptist preacher who had founded it. That was when the Pastor felt called to plant a church in his hometown of Whitehouse, Tennessee. The second Pastor of the church was a man who was highly educated. But his degree was not from a seminary. He had a doctorate of Organic Chemistry, and was a professor at Indiana University Southeast. This new Pastor had grown up Catholic. By his own testimony, he did not become a believer until he was 35 years old. When he was born again, he was immediately attracted to the charismatic movement, and sought to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit at a Kenneth Copeland meeting. It did not go quite the way he planned, though, he envisioned Kenneth Copeland laying his hands on him, and receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Kenneth Copeland did not lay hands on any one in the crowd that night. The newly converted believer got in his car, heartbroken, and then he remembered some of the teaching he had received, and asked God to fill him right there in his car. Before he made it home that night, he was praying fluently in the Holy Ghost. One thing led to another for him and he began attending Trinity Baptist Church in Fern Creek, Kentucky. Before long he was made one of the elders. When the founding Pastor resigned, the elder who was also a Chemistry professor, accepted the interim Pastor duties. Eventually he was voted in as the Pastor. Not long into his new tenure as Pastor, it was decided to change the name of the church to Louisville Trinity Church. The belief was that, the name Trinity Baptist Church, confused people, and they may not attend, thinking it was a Southern Baptist Church.
The second Pastor, pastored for a total of 17 years. He was one of the best teachers of the Bible I had met.
My story concerning Trinity Baptist Church and then Louisville Trinity Church began back at the point where the “church sowing “from Fern Creek Baptist church happened. Remember, I have already relayed my dad lost his temper and became extremely angry at those tongue-talkers. He was so offended and so angry at “religion” that he and my mother quit attending church all together in 1971. I was only 10 years old. So for the next 8 years, I never attended church. I was a little atheist, during those years. I remember spending my Sunday mornings watching reruns of the original Star Trek.
To move the story along a little more quickly, when I did meet Jesus, I was 18 years old. While I was a non-believer during my teen years, I did not settle for being just a non-believer, I was a passionate non-believer; I loved ridiculing those ignorant Christians.
When I became a Christian, I became a very, very passionate BELIEVER. The best way to describe my new relationship with Jesus was that I was the epitome of the old joke that every new believer should be locked in a room for several months. I witnessed to everyone about my new found savior. I “RELENTLESSLY” witnessed to everyone who would listen to me. I was so intoxicated with my new relationship with Jesus, I fully believed he was all powerful, and that the same miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit that were operating in the early Christian Church should and would occur in the modern church. Within less than a year, my new wife and I were members of Trinity Baptist Church, which was the same group of members and the same Pastor that used to belong to Fern Creek Baptist Church. These were the very people who my father had screamed at in the church foyer, “throw those tongue-talkers out” so violently years earlier.
I became fully engaged in the charismatic movement. I was seeking all the gifts and had already received my prayer language before I joined Trinity Baptist Church. There was one major problem however. I was never discipled. Yes, I was attending church regularly; really, I was there every time the doors were opened. I just never really learned the Word of God and took time to grow and mature as a believer. I was going a hundred miles an hour, doing every thing I could to work for Jesus, but I never really developed a consistent prayer life or Bible study time. And this proved to be my downfall. As I mentioned earlier, I married shortly after I started attending Trinity Baptist Church. I had just turned 19 years old when I was married. Oh, and one more thing, we married because my girlfriend was pregnant. My wife and I had a daughter by the time I was 20, and another one by the time I was 21. The strain of all the changes, the poor foundation as a Christian, and the difficulties of the new marriage and children led to the eventual break-up of my relationship with my wife. She had been my high school sweet heart since I was 17 years old. Officially, our marriage lasted for approximately five years, but truthfully, it was sick and dying well before that.
It was not long after the divorce that I stopped going to church for five full years. The first 3 years of the divorce involved me drinking to get drunk almost every day. I smoked a whole lot of marijuana during the first couple of years of the divorce, a whole lot! But, fortunately for me, and maybe by God’s providence, I was hired by a company, where I thought, I was going to get drug tested. I needed the money so badly, and I was so afraid I would lose the job, I actually quit marijuana completely. However, I still drank heavily, and binge drank on the weekends.
The turn around for me as a functional alcoholic occurred when I was arrested twice in a short period of time for drunk driving. Amazingly, my lawyer was able to get the charges amended both times where I never lost my license. But the second arrest and consequent night in jail led to the most serious thinking of my life. I would say for those of you, who know the prodigal son story, this was my pig pen. I was strip searched, given an orange jump suit, and sent up stairs in the county jail. The first time, that I was arrested for drunk driving, they just held me in the drunk tank overnight and released me in the morning. This second time, the trip upstairs may have been due to the fact that I refused the breathalyzer test. The hours in that jail were some of the scariest of my life; I was in a cell with 8 to 10 strangers. I know I was very, very drunk. That is why I refused the breathalyzer test. I should have passed out. But, I was way too scared too. All night I fought the urge to pass out, and all night I thought about how this never happened to me when I was not a drunk. The next morning, I was very surprised to be released again. That was the last time I have been drunk in my life. That was over 22 plus years ago. The fact that I described the experience as a pig pen experience for me may be misleading. I did not return to God or my ex-wife and ask forgiveness. But, the next two years were the first totally sober years of my life since I smoked my first joint at 14. Those two years were essential in my growing up. I was forced to cope with life without drugs, alcohol, a wife, or even a friend. I think God used those two years to prepare me for what He had planned to do next in my life. The next paragraphs will describe what God did.
In 1990, one weekend, I was returning the children to my ex-wife. I was allowed into the house for some reason. I do not remember why. While I was talking to her, I happened to notice my Christian rock albums that I used to own when we were married before. I asked her if I could borrow them, so that I could listen to them for a few days. That is what I told her anyway, I actually planned on keeping them. When we finally broke up for the last time, and I moved out, I took practically anything worth taking with me. The only things that I left behind for her, was the children’s beds, her clothes, and some broken down furniture that I did not want. I was not a nice person when the divorce took place. I still was not a nice person. So, I took my newly “borrowed” Christian Rock albums, and listened to them that night. I was only two songs in to some old Petra, before I started bawling my eyes out and crying out to God to forgive me. The first song I listened to was called “Chameleon”. It was about a Christian who could change and act like who ever they were around. That was me. I looked good on the outside to other Christians in the first years of my new Christianity, but inside I was still the consummate sinner. The second song was titled “Judas Kiss”. The song’s chorus was “what is it like when one of your children, willingly walk away, it must be just like Judas Kiss”! That was the night I repented. It was well over 5 years into my divorce; I had not attended a single church service during that whole time. I cried and cried. The very next Sunday, I was back in church. I was back in the same church that started out being called Trinity Baptist Church, and was now called Louisville Trinity Church. A few Sundays after that, I asked my ex-wife if she would allow me to take the children to church. And then I asked her if she would go to. The funny thing was, I wanted her to go and sit way over on the other side of the church. She probably thought she was supposed to sit by me. Because when she came, she did. I was so mad. I did not hear a word that the preacher preached that day. The nerve of “that woman” to sit next to me after all that we had been through. Within less than a year of this incident, God had restored our marriage. We were re-married June 15, 1991.
I will tell more of our story and of my testimony in the next blog.
The new church that he started immediately had many more people attending it, than the original Southern Baptist Church. They had a gathering place problem, right from the beginning. They eventually bought property on a country road off the main road, and began building their new church building. The church was first called Trinity Baptist Church. For ten years, the church was pastored by the original Southern Baptist preacher who had founded it. That was when the Pastor felt called to plant a church in his hometown of Whitehouse, Tennessee. The second Pastor of the church was a man who was highly educated. But his degree was not from a seminary. He had a doctorate of Organic Chemistry, and was a professor at Indiana University Southeast. This new Pastor had grown up Catholic. By his own testimony, he did not become a believer until he was 35 years old. When he was born again, he was immediately attracted to the charismatic movement, and sought to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit at a Kenneth Copeland meeting. It did not go quite the way he planned, though, he envisioned Kenneth Copeland laying his hands on him, and receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Kenneth Copeland did not lay hands on any one in the crowd that night. The newly converted believer got in his car, heartbroken, and then he remembered some of the teaching he had received, and asked God to fill him right there in his car. Before he made it home that night, he was praying fluently in the Holy Ghost. One thing led to another for him and he began attending Trinity Baptist Church in Fern Creek, Kentucky. Before long he was made one of the elders. When the founding Pastor resigned, the elder who was also a Chemistry professor, accepted the interim Pastor duties. Eventually he was voted in as the Pastor. Not long into his new tenure as Pastor, it was decided to change the name of the church to Louisville Trinity Church. The belief was that, the name Trinity Baptist Church, confused people, and they may not attend, thinking it was a Southern Baptist Church.
The second Pastor, pastored for a total of 17 years. He was one of the best teachers of the Bible I had met.
My story concerning Trinity Baptist Church and then Louisville Trinity Church began back at the point where the “church sowing “from Fern Creek Baptist church happened. Remember, I have already relayed my dad lost his temper and became extremely angry at those tongue-talkers. He was so offended and so angry at “religion” that he and my mother quit attending church all together in 1971. I was only 10 years old. So for the next 8 years, I never attended church. I was a little atheist, during those years. I remember spending my Sunday mornings watching reruns of the original Star Trek.
To move the story along a little more quickly, when I did meet Jesus, I was 18 years old. While I was a non-believer during my teen years, I did not settle for being just a non-believer, I was a passionate non-believer; I loved ridiculing those ignorant Christians.
When I became a Christian, I became a very, very passionate BELIEVER. The best way to describe my new relationship with Jesus was that I was the epitome of the old joke that every new believer should be locked in a room for several months. I witnessed to everyone about my new found savior. I “RELENTLESSLY” witnessed to everyone who would listen to me. I was so intoxicated with my new relationship with Jesus, I fully believed he was all powerful, and that the same miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit that were operating in the early Christian Church should and would occur in the modern church. Within less than a year, my new wife and I were members of Trinity Baptist Church, which was the same group of members and the same Pastor that used to belong to Fern Creek Baptist Church. These were the very people who my father had screamed at in the church foyer, “throw those tongue-talkers out” so violently years earlier.
I became fully engaged in the charismatic movement. I was seeking all the gifts and had already received my prayer language before I joined Trinity Baptist Church. There was one major problem however. I was never discipled. Yes, I was attending church regularly; really, I was there every time the doors were opened. I just never really learned the Word of God and took time to grow and mature as a believer. I was going a hundred miles an hour, doing every thing I could to work for Jesus, but I never really developed a consistent prayer life or Bible study time. And this proved to be my downfall. As I mentioned earlier, I married shortly after I started attending Trinity Baptist Church. I had just turned 19 years old when I was married. Oh, and one more thing, we married because my girlfriend was pregnant. My wife and I had a daughter by the time I was 20, and another one by the time I was 21. The strain of all the changes, the poor foundation as a Christian, and the difficulties of the new marriage and children led to the eventual break-up of my relationship with my wife. She had been my high school sweet heart since I was 17 years old. Officially, our marriage lasted for approximately five years, but truthfully, it was sick and dying well before that.
It was not long after the divorce that I stopped going to church for five full years. The first 3 years of the divorce involved me drinking to get drunk almost every day. I smoked a whole lot of marijuana during the first couple of years of the divorce, a whole lot! But, fortunately for me, and maybe by God’s providence, I was hired by a company, where I thought, I was going to get drug tested. I needed the money so badly, and I was so afraid I would lose the job, I actually quit marijuana completely. However, I still drank heavily, and binge drank on the weekends.
The turn around for me as a functional alcoholic occurred when I was arrested twice in a short period of time for drunk driving. Amazingly, my lawyer was able to get the charges amended both times where I never lost my license. But the second arrest and consequent night in jail led to the most serious thinking of my life. I would say for those of you, who know the prodigal son story, this was my pig pen. I was strip searched, given an orange jump suit, and sent up stairs in the county jail. The first time, that I was arrested for drunk driving, they just held me in the drunk tank overnight and released me in the morning. This second time, the trip upstairs may have been due to the fact that I refused the breathalyzer test. The hours in that jail were some of the scariest of my life; I was in a cell with 8 to 10 strangers. I know I was very, very drunk. That is why I refused the breathalyzer test. I should have passed out. But, I was way too scared too. All night I fought the urge to pass out, and all night I thought about how this never happened to me when I was not a drunk. The next morning, I was very surprised to be released again. That was the last time I have been drunk in my life. That was over 22 plus years ago. The fact that I described the experience as a pig pen experience for me may be misleading. I did not return to God or my ex-wife and ask forgiveness. But, the next two years were the first totally sober years of my life since I smoked my first joint at 14. Those two years were essential in my growing up. I was forced to cope with life without drugs, alcohol, a wife, or even a friend. I think God used those two years to prepare me for what He had planned to do next in my life. The next paragraphs will describe what God did.
In 1990, one weekend, I was returning the children to my ex-wife. I was allowed into the house for some reason. I do not remember why. While I was talking to her, I happened to notice my Christian rock albums that I used to own when we were married before. I asked her if I could borrow them, so that I could listen to them for a few days. That is what I told her anyway, I actually planned on keeping them. When we finally broke up for the last time, and I moved out, I took practically anything worth taking with me. The only things that I left behind for her, was the children’s beds, her clothes, and some broken down furniture that I did not want. I was not a nice person when the divorce took place. I still was not a nice person. So, I took my newly “borrowed” Christian Rock albums, and listened to them that night. I was only two songs in to some old Petra, before I started bawling my eyes out and crying out to God to forgive me. The first song I listened to was called “Chameleon”. It was about a Christian who could change and act like who ever they were around. That was me. I looked good on the outside to other Christians in the first years of my new Christianity, but inside I was still the consummate sinner. The second song was titled “Judas Kiss”. The song’s chorus was “what is it like when one of your children, willingly walk away, it must be just like Judas Kiss”! That was the night I repented. It was well over 5 years into my divorce; I had not attended a single church service during that whole time. I cried and cried. The very next Sunday, I was back in church. I was back in the same church that started out being called Trinity Baptist Church, and was now called Louisville Trinity Church. A few Sundays after that, I asked my ex-wife if she would allow me to take the children to church. And then I asked her if she would go to. The funny thing was, I wanted her to go and sit way over on the other side of the church. She probably thought she was supposed to sit by me. Because when she came, she did. I was so mad. I did not hear a word that the preacher preached that day. The nerve of “that woman” to sit next to me after all that we had been through. Within less than a year of this incident, God had restored our marriage. We were re-married June 15, 1991.
I will tell more of our story and of my testimony in the next blog.
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