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!