Church History - Part IV

My Church History - Part IV

As mentioned earlier, Mark Hitchcock arrived at Faith Bible Church during the same month that Russ McKnight died, October 1991. Sam Storms conducted the memorial service for Russ and I recall that it was on a Saturday following a Monday morning graveside service attended by friends and family at Memorial Park Cemetery in Edmond. Being the thrifty Scot that he was, Russ had prearranged the burial to be within 24 hours of his death and in a plain coffin. The quick burial meant that there were no costs for embalming. I attended this service at the cemetery but don't remember that much about it other than the tremendous amount of pain that I was experiencing.

Russ was not only the teaching elder of the church that I attended, he was my mentor and my friend. I had visited him several times at his house during the last year of his life and always left asking 'Why God, would you take someone who taught your word so faithfully and allow him to suffer so much?' Why do we ask questions for which the answer is only in the mind of our great God? Perhaps it is during those times that we realize just how little control we have over our circumstances and maybe we even realize that God is increasing our faith little by little through the tough times. As he molds us into the image of Christ, he doesn't care as much that we are always happy, only that we remain faithful.

Sam Storms conducted the memorial service for Russ with additional comments by David Lightfoot and Randy Wood. I believe that all three of them had participated in the bible study that Russ taught for several years on the OU campus. I always felt it a bit ironic that the final service in honor of Russ was conducted inside a church building that he never desired nor pushed for. His focus was on people and what they believed about God. He always taught sitting down in an elevated stool with wheels on it and behind a plain podium until Mitch Harris got the bright idea to build a wooden podium. If anyone that reads this is attending Faith Bible Church, you should request a copy of some of his (Russ) Ephesians sermons just to get a flavor of how he rightly divided the word. It has been almost twenty years and I still miss him.

But, life goes on. This was Mark Hitchcock's first church to lead but he had grown up in Metropolitan Baptist Church where most of the original FBC members had attended so he was no stranger to many. There began to be some unrest early on and eventually things came to a head in July, 1993. I was never an insider but I knew that some of the elders including David Lightfoot and Tom Ball were teaching that most of the spiritual gifts were still valid. Russ had been a staunch 'cessationist' and so was Mark. I do not think that Mark was an elder yet but there was no consensus among the elders over the issue so the church split. I have never been divorced (I attribute my almost 45 years of marriage to the marvelous grace of God alone) but it seemed like I was going through a divorce anyway.

I loved and respected all of the elders and my wife and I did not know which way to turn. I remember attending a meeting at the home of David Lightfoot a few weeks later and Sam Storms was there. He stated that he believed that the gifts had not ceased and that he, himself, had the gift of tongues. He said that he discovered this gift many years ago but that Russ had convinced him that it was not real. He did admit to using it only in private and that he had never spoken in tongues in public. The core issue that seemed to be the major reason for the split was the gift of prophecy. In his book, Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist, Sam Storms makes his case for the gift of prophecy. My only comment is that it makes you think but those of us with closed minds rarely think fully.

Anyhow, Bridgeway church was later formed and it still going strong after 15-16 years and (irony of ironies), Sam Storms has been the senior pastor at Bridgeway for two years or so. But, back to FBC. The numbers dropped for a while due to the number of people that left but that is ancient history and not many talk about it anymore. Joyce and I were sort of left high and dry and searching for what to do next. We spent time at Heritage Presbyterian (PCA), Crosssings Community Church, and visited a few others but basically we just roamed around for over five years. We fellow shipped with a small group at the home of Ben and Laura Love for quite a while hoping that a church might develop but it did not. In November, 1998 we began attending Faith Bible Church again and Part V will cover the years since then and close the book on my church history, at least the part that has already been written.

My desire in all of my blogs is to be factual and non-judgmental. Please let me know if any thing I have written offends you and I will certainly correct it. I have discovered that I am saving my memory until I get old so I seldom use it!

Acts 4:12