Introduction:I remember the first time I ever walked into a Christian Church. It was for a Thanksgiving Dinner. My parents were in the middle of a messy divorce, my mother and I had just moved out of our family home, and we were renting a couple of rooms from some dear friends of the family. My mother had started to attend church with a friend from work and she had found a new life in Christ and a church home. Being only 17, church was the furthest thing from my mind, but I wanted to support my mother and spend some time with her for the holidays at her new church. After my first visit, I was hooked; I had found a church where I could get in involved and grow.
As the years went by, I experienced so many things. I met and married my beautiful wife, Angelica. I helped pioneer a couple of churches, one in Washington D.C. and one in Houston Texas. I also participated in a crusade in Manila, Philippines. Within the local church, I had been involved in every ministry that would have me. I was involved with youth ministry, couples, ushers, greeters, soloist, singing on the Praise Team, Small Group Leader, you name it, I did it.
Not too long after returning from the Philippines, I received a call from our Associate Pastor telling me that there was a need in the Financial Office and they were looking for someone to run the church’s financial office. I explained to him that I would need to talk it over with Angelica and get right back to him. I immediately called Angelica, to make sure we were in agreement (this will be covered in a later chapter). Angelica said, “If this is what God is telling you then I will support you.” I called our Associate Pastor back with the news that I would take the position. He went on to explain that in this position I would be living by faith. (You know what that means.) However, I knew this is what God wanted for my life so I took the position. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. You may be asking yourself then why did you leave the church? I never planned to leave this church. I had received the Lord there and had no intention on looking for another church.
Here is what happened in a nutshell, our Senior Pastor retired and the Associate Pastor became the Senior Pastor. With running the Financial Office, you are trusted by God and the Senior Pastor to be a good steward of the resources that comes in. With the changing of Pastors, it was like starting all over again. Communication, leadership styles, pet peeves, everything had to be relearned. After a year with the new pastor, I decided it would be best to move on and allow the Senior Pastor to recruit and groom his own office staff. Now, I don’t want to deceive anyone, there was quite a bit of drama left out of this story to protect the innocent or guilty. It all depends on what side of the table you are sitting on.
After leaving my position, my intention was to assimilate back into the church and everything would be business as usual. This is not how this story would end. It was so hard to go from being involved in a little bit of everything to not being involved at all. Aside from not being involved, it was difficult for me to deal with the congregation in my new role as a fellow church member and not answer all those probing questions.
By this point, I felt as if I was a stranger in my own home. I knew where I was, but I did not know how to move to the next step of my life. Feeling uncomfortable, I immediately become ultra sensitive. This is exactly how I felt. I thought everyone was looking at me funny, people were ignoring me and I felt like every message from the pulpit was a snide innuendo. I could not take it anymore, I told Angelica how I was feeling and that I thought it was time to look for another church. Angelica gave me her standard no pressure remark. “If this is what God is telling you I will support you.”
I made the toughest decision of my life, to leave the church where I had received Christ, met my wife, and grew up in the things of God. I called the Pastor and let him know we were going to be looking for another church, he understood. Personally, if I were him I would have been relieved. We told a couple of friends and started our search for a new church.
Thus begins the journey of becoming lost in the pews.
