New Book Chapter 11 Attending church Pam Padgett: Attending a non-denominational church

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ...

(This new book is now available on Amazon in e-book for 99 cents.  Later to be published in paperback also.)

 

Pam says:

 

After leaving the Catholic church I went with friends to a couple of Baptist churches periodically.  Although people were friendly at these churches and the music was lively, these churches seemed "dead" to me.  

 

One day in the early 1980's I went to the store and saw a large tent in the parking lot.  

 

In the tent a man was preaching from the Bible.  I went in and listened for a while and found what he said to be interesting.  He spoke of the difference between those who believe in Jesus mentally and those who believe from the heart.   My understanding was this man was an evangelist and was holding meetings for only a few days.  

 

Several months later I began an internship at a counseling center for teenagers.  Some of my co-workers there spoke of the new non-denominational church they were going to and I recognized that the man they referred to as the pastor was the evangelist I had heard at the tent meeting, Richard Hogue.  

 

I was told that he and his wife had wanted to settle down in one place to raise their family so he stopped doing evangelist work and "became" a pastor and started this new church called Metrochurch.  

 

(At the time I didn't know Ephesians 4 in which we're told that Jesus gives ministry assignments.  A person doesn't decide to start or stop being an apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or pastor or teacher. ) 

 

Ephesians 4:11-12  And HE (Jesus) gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. 

 

I began attending Metrochurch in Edmond, Oklahoma. 

 

***

 

At Metrochurch there was a singles group that met one evening each week.  Although I worked evenings, when possible, I went to the singles group meeting during my dinner break.  When I first began going to this group, they met in a small room with less than 10 people.  To me the people in the group seemed to care about things of God.  

 

After not being able to go to the singles group for several weeks, when I returned I was surprised to find that they were now meeting in the main auditorium and there were well over 100 people there.  

 

There was a new leader, a new pastor at the church, and there was lots of singing and clapping of hands.  The meetings were now more of a social gathering than they had been before and there were many people that I had never seen when the group was small.  In fact, I seldom saw anyone I had met when the group was small.  

 

In this large gathering, I met a woman, Cindy, who had a room to rent in her house.  I was looking for a place to live while I finished my studies and I  decided to rent this room in Cindy's house.  

 

Cindy had been married and divorced twice and had a daughter about 6 years old.  

 

At first she seemed content to remain single and raise her daughter, but several months later it became clear that she was looking for another husband.  

 

I shared scripture with her which tell us that if a divorced woman re-marries she commits adultery and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.  

 

Scriptures such as:

 

Romans 7:2-3   For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

 

*  The divorced woman who remarries commits adultery. 

 

Matthew 5:32   But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

 

*  The man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

 

***

 

What a shock when Cindy said, "I don't care what the Bible says.  I know what I believe."  

 

*****

 

For the written account of what the singles group did as a result of Pam sharing scriptures showing the adultery that results if a divorced woman remarries, please click on the following link:  Chapter 11, Attending Church!

 

* For writings on additional subjects, click here:  Jesus Ministries Exhortations Blog