A Random Man and An Answer to Prayer

I have mentioned before that my husband and I recently left a church we had been attending due to its promotion of Willow Creek, its attendance of Willow Creek leadership summits, its promotion of Rick Warren and Purpose Driven Life, along with a few other reasons.

So, this has launched us into a search for a new home church. Let me tell you, this has not been easy. It seems that the particular place that we live has many many many churches that are official members of the Willow Creek Association. People often say, "Hey, have you tried such-and-such a church?", and my response has more often than not been "No, but I'm pretty sure it's part of the Willow Creek Association." Then I get home and check on the official Willow Creek Association website and sure enough, there it is-official member. We will not even bother trying out a church already a member of the WCA.

So, we have prayed much about this and have been trying out 2 different churches. Church No. 1 we felt pretty good about-really liked it the first time we went (we've only been there once so far) but it is quite conservative (but not legalistic) and so much different than the last church we had attended. Church No. 2 was not as conservative and also not part of the WCA, but we didn't feel quite as good about it.

Anyways, we have prayed much about this, and here is how we believe God is helping us make our decision and answering prayer.

We were supposed to meet some family and friends for supper and had arrived at the restaurant when I felt a strong sense that we should go back home and go get a copy of Faith Undone by Roger Oakland to give to a friend. So, we left the restaurant and drove back home to get the book.

We walked into the restaurant with the book and a random elderly man at a table stopped us and asked, "Hey, have you read that book? What do you think of the new things coming into the church?" Well we explained that we thought many of the things were not good and that we had recently left a church due to its promotion of Willow Creek, Saddleback, etc. He said he thought there was much deception coming into many churches and that he was also looking for a new church. We had ended our conversation, when I suddenly piped up, "What church are you attending?" He mentioned Church No. 2 that my husband and I had been trying out (the not-as-conservative one that we didn't feel as good about) and said that they were leaving the church that had been attending because it was starting to promote some of these new un-biblical ideas. He specifically mentioned the "social gospel". And, so ended our encounter with this gentleman. We gave the book to our friend.

My husband and I got home and both said that we felt God used that man to help us make our decision about attending a church easier. We both feel that likely the church that that man had been attending but was now leaving (Church No. 2) was not the church for us. So, anyways, the search continues. We have been away for a few Sundays in a row attending church with our families, but I think we will try Church No. 1 (the more conservative one that we really liked) a few more times. I'll keep you posted about how this goes. Pray for us that we could find a sound, Bible-believing church.