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.