There have been many twists and turns in my life with the Lord. While the journey has not been in a straight line, I have felt His hand at every step.
I grew up in a middle class home. My family would have been best described as “nominally” Christian. Yet, we had plenty of Bibles. While they were largely unread, virtually all of them ended up on a bookshelf in my childhood room.
Of all of them, a small, pocket sized Gideon New Testament grabbed my attention. Because it was the King James Version, I found it relatively difficult to understand. Still, there was commentary in the front pages, but most important, it had a commitment statement in the back inside cover where I could sign my name, accepting Jesus as my Savior. I still remember how I paced around that little book – picking up my pen, and putting it back down. Finally, one Saturday evening when I was age 16, I remember saying the prayer and signing the back of the book. Even at that time I felt that something was different after I did this.
Then life took another twist. Right after high school I joined and became active in a church which had its roots in the Latter Day Saint movement, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (which later changed its name to Community of Christ). Throughout college and then through my postgraduate education, I usually attended services twice a week at the congregation located in the City of Lakewood. In many important respects, the RLDS/Community of Christ church has always and continues to distinguish and distance itself from its cousin, the Mormon Church. With some success, for about the last 30 to 40 years the church leadership has worked toward being accepted as a “mainline” church.
Starting in the late 1970s or early 1980s I was “called” to the priesthood and became increasingly active, and after moving to the Arcadia area I eventually switched to the Temple City congregation. I took on various leadership positions, including intermittently acting as the assistant to the “presiding elder.” In the parlance of the RLDS church at the time, a “presiding elder” essentially functions as a lay pastor of a congregation (many congregations now use the more widely understood term of “pastor”). At one point I served one 2-year term as the “presiding elder” of the Temple City congregation.
While I had developed many friends and ongoing duties at Temple City, I started feeling that the Lord wanted me to “move on.” But changing my church home just seemed so complicated. I honestly did not know how to do it. I had connections, friends, and responsibilities. I had been so involved for so long. There was also the complicating feeling that I was “betraying” the church. Anyway, where would I go?
Then about 10 years ago my life took another twist. For years I was curious and impressed by the large cross which seemed to hang over the 210 freeway at Lake Avenue. So one morning I took a baby-step, and came to one of Lake’s 9:00 o’clock services. Surprise, Surprise – lightning from heaven didn’t strike me when I sat down!
My baby steps then turned into a routine. My first years of regular attendance at Lake were hectic: I brought my children to the 9 o’clock service at Lake and we always sat in the balcony. When services were completed, I rushed home to drop them off. Then, I rushed to my Temple City congregation to fulfill my duties at the 11 o’clock service. Only after my children were grown and in college and after my commitments at Temple City were complete, did I begin attending exclusively at Lake.
While I was so completely active in my old church, I completely “fell off the grid” at Lake. I simply sat in the balcony and absorbed the Sunday services. At first I enjoyed the quiet of being lost in a huge church, but the novelty eventually wore off.
I have shared parts of this story with some at Lake, and the common reaction has been surprise at the length of time I was uninvolved in the life of the church. But I really enjoyed the anonymity of the balcony, which was impossible from where I had come. I was also reticent to change because once the anonymity was gone, it was gone forever.
But again I felt the Lord’s leading. So about one year ago, in yet another “twist,” I saw a poster in a window at Lake calling for volunteers for the Coffee Connection. On January 9, 2014 I e-mailed volunteer coordinator Nancy Smith to inquire and to possibly volunteer. I half hoped that Nancy would overlook my e-mail.
She didn’t.
Jesus is the master choreographer of our lives. He knows our frailties better than we do, and He works with and around our limitations. Even with our self imposed limitations, if we turn toward Him, He gives us “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” which is then poured out for us. (Luke 6:38). I became a member at Lake in July, 2014. While I do feel some nostalgia and loss for the past, I know for certain that Lake is my new church home, and that it is the answer to many, many prayers. I also know for certain that my salvation is based on the grace of God through my faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to be a member of a congregation where we have this shared faith and shared hope.