recentchristian

It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged and thought I’d start blogging again.

Towards the end of 2015, I fell away and couldn’t find my way back. The church I was with did try to restore me by (Biblically) reaching out, then a planned meeting with the Pastor and one other church member. After that, the Pastor contacted me a handful of times and then I was ultimately (again, Biblically) excommunicated (due to non-attendance – more about that in another post).

The problem was that I was trying to find my way back and not fully, dependently, relying on God’s never ending mercy and grace.

When I received the letter stating that I was excommunicated in accordance with the clear teaching of Scripture and also with the Membership Covenant, I really didn’t understand (and possibly, even more sadly, didn’t care) the gravity of the situation, even though the gravity was quite clearly communicated in the letter. That speaks to how far I had fallen away.

As I write this today, I write tearfully, with a thankful, humble heart – knowing all too well that many who backslide or fall away don’t repent and give their lives to Christ once again.

We all know the beautiful, glorious truth (when Jesus speaks) “… that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:39 – NIV). This verse hits me lovingly hard since I had fallen away for about seven years (I started attending services online once again towards the beginning of 2023).

I thought that since I was excommunicated, I wouldn’t be able to go back to my church and maybe not attend any church at all. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I found this ( Kicked Out of Church: How God Brought Me Home | Desiring God ) article on Desiring God. I’m ever so thankful that God led me to search for a way home through the Desiring God website and that I was led to that article. If I hadn’t read it, I would have continued to think I was destined for an eternity in hell and not able to attend any church at all.

I contacted my friend (Jill, the Pastor’s wife at my last church – first time contacting her since falling away) and let her know that I had been led back to Christ. It was a joyous reunion with her. I let her know that I had been attending services online and then in person at another (Biblical) church and that I was pursuing Membership at that church.

How blessed have I been to attend (and enter into membership with) not only one, but two, Biblical churches!!!

Jill let me know that one of the elders at the church I was looking to be a member at would contact her husband (the Pastor) to understand details surrounding my excommunication. Reaching out to my last Pastor set in motion a wonderful, restorative, edifying chain of events.

At the end of the conversation with my last Pastor, he invited me to his church to publicly apologize to the congregation and my knee-jerk reaction was “yikes” (I’m an introvert, and add giving a public apology on top of being an introvert, well, that led to a “YIKES” moment – I’m talking a 7 or 8 on the Richter Scale) but he, again, in a seemingly endless fountain of wisdom, told me I didn’t have to answer right away and that the conversation we had was enough for him to know that I was truly repentant and I didn’t have to attend the next Members Meeting to publicly apologize.

I’m not sure how much of the apology I’ll post but I will post some of it in the future.

How timely is it that, as I finish writing, that this song would come up on shuffle … yup … God even controls which song pops up next on shuffle.