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

Church History - Part III

My Church History - Part III

I left off in Part II circa 1990. In the prior years land had been acquired for a permanent church site but the city of Edmond would not cooperate with access zoning requirements. Long story short, that land was sold, five acres on N. Coltrane was purchased and church bonds were issued to raise the money for a building which was occupied sometime in 1991. In Sept or Oct of 1990, Russ McKnight notified the body that he would be retiring. Shortly after that, Russ was diagnosed with esphegeal cancer and thus begun one of the most difficult years that I have ever experienced.

Russ had surgery at Baptist Hospital and about 25-30 people from the church were there. I remember the nurse coming to the waiting room and asking if any of us were familty members and we all replied yes. We truly were brothers and sisters in Christ as Russ had so faithfully proclaimed during his ten years of teaching at FBC. The surgery report was not good and Russ experienced much misery over the follwing months until his death in October, 1991. I remember being at the hospital with Rosemary Burke and Russ' daughter Nancy on Sunday night before Russ passed away early Monday morning. Russ was barely aware of his surroundings and had the morphine pump in his left hand. Our prayer was that God would be pleased to call Russ home to eliminate the pain and bring Russ into heaven's portals. Our prayer was answered.

During the year of Russ' suffering, the church was debating the future direction of FBC. Russ believed strongly that the teaching ministry of the church was best served by a multitude of elders instead of a single teacher. Russ believed that a single teacher became elevated, not necessarily of his own doing, to a position of higher authority than others in the body and this he believed to be unscriptural. Each believer was at the same position in the body of Christ and there was no such division as the clergy and the laity.

Irrespective of this teaching, Mark Hitchcock was called as the new teaching elder(soon to be called senior pastor) and his first month at FBC was the month that Russ died and we had moved into our new building. Mitch Harris was a member of FBC and became the general contractor for construction of the building and used the body members where possible to keep the cost down. Many of us stained cabinents, painted, cleaned, etc and it truly was a labor of love.

Since I am so wordy and it is getting late, it looks like there will be a part IV and maybe part V. Russ' favorite quote was the following: Everything God Requires, He Provides!

The passage of time keeps confirming this is my life. He is my life and if Jesus Christ stops upholding all things by the power of his word (Hebrews 1:3), there is no hope. Have you trusted him? Do not delay!

Church History - Part II

My Church History - Part II      

As mentioned earlier, our first Sunday at Faith Bible Church was in June, 1981 which was the first anniversary celebration of the church.  We were meeting at a daycare center called Children's World on N. Kelly in Edmond.  Every Sunday morning, the chairs were carried in from the portable building and carried back out after the service.  Two or three years (maybe more, memory is a terrible thing to lose) later, we moved to a business park on Second Street just west of Interstate 35.  As I recall, it was shortly after the move that we began meeting on occasion on Sunday nights.  Russ called this the 'open meeting' and the best description of this meeting would be that it was unscripted, for the most part, and was to allow each member of the body to use their spiritual gifts as we ministered to one another.  Russ also loved the term 'one-anothering' and was very dogmatic in his teaching that it was one of the main purposes of the Christian life.  He stressed that we are called into relationship with Christ to bring glory to God and to travel the road together with fellow believers.

The chairs were placed in a circle so that everyone faced everyone else.  Talk about uncomfortable for a while, whew!  We would sing songs and choruses, someone would share and expound on scripture, sometimes the morning sermon would be discussed, outstanding issues related to the church were mentioned, prayer requests were made, prayers were offered, and (gasp) sin would be confessed.  This was ministry as God designed it and as the New Testament describes it.  And it was, at the same time very difficult and very rewarding.

Church discipline was encountered at least twice between 1980-90.  As described in Matthew 18, this is necessary for the purity of the body, not that we never sin but open sin must be dealt with scripturally and it was.  The goal is always restoration, however, this did not occur in every case. 

Our familty was traveling forty miles one way to attend FBC and would grow weary of the distance from time to time.  We attended for short periods of time from 1981-90, Snow Hill Baptist Church which was about one and one-half miles from where we lived, Ridgecrest Baptist Church which was about one-half mile from the school that our children attended, Grace Bible Church pastored by Tommie Ice in Del City (maybe 15 miles closer than FBC), and Grace Chapel led by Phil Bowersox which was meeting at the Ramada Inn and NW 39th and May Ave in OKC.  Each of these churches were used by God as growing experiences but nothing fit as well as FBC and we permanently moved to Edmond in 1987 and stayed at FBC until - oh, wait, I will have to save the next chapter of life at FBC for Part III.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

He is Risen, Indeed!

Church History - Part I

My Church History - Part I      

My earliest memory of being inside a church building is in the late 1940’s, probably 1947, at which time a funeral was held for my brother who was killed in Germany in March, 1945 at the age of 19.

This is a picture of my brother, Ed and me in December, 1943.  (I am the short one.)  His body had been buried in a cemetery in Belgium until after the war ended and was then subsequently shipped home.

HENRI-CHAPELLE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL

The service was held at the First Baptist Church in Seminole, OK and I must assume that is the first church that I attended.  My dad retired before I started the first grade and we purchased a twenty acre tract that was eight miles north of town.  I vaguely remember some remodeling and using the outhouse before we moved in.  After that, the outhouse disappeared.  

We lived only one-half mile from Highway Baptist Church and began attending there and we did so until Dad died in 1960 and mother and I moved back to town. On June 8, 1951 on a Friday during Vacation Bible School, I walked the aisle, prayed a prayer, filled out a card, was later baptized and thought that I had been saved and so did everyone else.  I attended a small country school with an enrollment of around 120-130 for grades 1-12.  My graduating senior class was the largest in years with 21 students. It was not unusual for a class to have less than ten.  There was no down side to identifying as a Christian and the majority of kids went to church.  I never did anything really bad unless you count throwing a watermelon on the front porch of the HS principal who was also my scoutmaster.

 

And I was a faithful church attender, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and any other time that the doors were open.  It was not even a topic of discussion, we went to church and I had a bunch of gold stars to prove it.  Looking back, I am sure a lot of my motivation from about age 13 on was to see if Phyllis, Lynda, Sandra, etc. would be there.  We had youth choir during one period on Sunday nights and it was common practice to put your arm around your girlfriend in church and I did.  I even recall singing a few specials with my best friend, James.  He still sings in the choir, I don’t, ‘nuf said.

To sum up my Christian experience during this time, you could say I acted like the rest of the ‘good’ kids so that must make me a Christian.  I mean, my mom and dad were Christians, so I must be one too.  Wrong!  Part II will cover the span of time when Christ became real to me and I am convinced that it did not happen in 1951.

 

Stay tuned as my church history unfolds and you will understand why my blog name is ‘Grace Alone’.  As it says in Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

 

First Blog - Second Verse

My Likes and Dislikes

(Second Verse)

My first attempt at blogging was a dismal failure.  I don’t know whether to blame it on software or my ineptness.  If it was my fault, I have an excuse called senioritis with intermittent brain freezes and severe brain fogginess.  As I have aged, rhythm has become my mantra and if my rhythm is missing; well, it’s not a pretty picture and you don’t want to be in close proximity because anything can and likely will happen.  I fully expect that someday I will gargle with shampoo and wash my hair with Listermint.  Most days, I shower first thing and I have a certain rhythm.  It goes something like this:  1) brush my teeth; 2) get a mouthful of water and mix it with a small amount of Listermint; 3)gargle for at least 30 seconds (in obedience to Kim, my dental hygienist for many years) while shampooing my hair; 4) shave (usually only on Sundays and Wednesdays), 5) lather everywhere (I made sure before I entered the shower that there was ample soap – my wife uses the bar even when it is thin enough to see through); 6) rinse thoroughly; 7) shut the water off; and 8) dry thoroughly in accordance with my wife’s drying instructions which include drying over 50% of my body before exiting the shower so as to not get water on the tile bathroom floor.  And you thought body hygiene was a simple task!

The danger comes if I miss any of the steps or rearrange them and this is always caused by thinking about something else while in the shower; hence, I try to put my brain in neutral while showering but while still trying to remember which direction to pull the razor across my face.  Now that you understand my thought patterns while bathing, please let me revisit my likes and dislikes that were discussed on my very first ever blog (that blog is now in blog heaven or blog h---).

I like:

1.       Christians that make me thirsty for more of Christ

2.      The New York Yankees 

3.      John Gresham novels

4.      Anything written by Randy Alcorn, both fiction and non-fiction

      5.      John MacArthur Study Bible (NASB)
      6.      Dell PCs

7.      HP Printers

8.      Reformed Theology with an emphasis on God’s Sovereign Grace

9.      My 9 year old granddaughter, Kaylee

10.  Visiting the sick

11.  Sharing in small groups

12.  Praying any time, any place, about anything

13.  Southern Gospel Music especially the Gaithers

14.  Buicks

15.  Callaway Golf Clubs

16.  Titleist Golf Balls

17.  My Samsung Epic Smartphone (Droid OS)

18.  Pars and Bogeys

19.  My Mark Shannon memories

20.  Dachshunds

Charlie

I dislike:

       1.  People you say ‘fer’ instead of ‘for’

  2.  People who use ‘your’ when they should have used ‘you’re’

  3.  People who have no idea how to use a turn signal nor when to use it

  4.  Professionals who speak in public a lot and use ‘uh’, ‘um’, ‘you know’, etc

  5.  Spam mail

  6.  People who interrupt (exception for Bill O’reilly)

  7.  Bleeding heart liberals who believe tax and spend is the only way to govern

  8.  TV Commercials (few exceptions)

  9.  Political campaign phone calls

10.  Flat tires

11.  Broccoli

12.  Cell phones ringing during the worship service

13.  Denied medical, dental, or vision claims

14.  Aching knees

15.  Wet sock-covered foot with yellow stain (doggy puddle in the house)

16.  No clean paring knives in the utensil drawer (We’ve bought 8 new ones this year)

17.  Unmatched socks (since I retired I am responsible for the laundry)

18.  Empty ink cartridges

19.  Windows error messages

20.  Colonoscopies

 This doesn’t exactly match my first lists but I could probably come up with at least one hundred likes and dislikes without even trying.  Here’s hoping this blog post lasts longer than my first one.

Thought for the day:  Providence is defined as the hand of God in the glove of human events.  Have a Blessed Day!