How I found my new church.

I'm sure there are as many different stories as there are people on this BB. I'll start with mine.

Around March of 2002, I started taking singing lessons. I found the teacher through an internet search. Soon, I found out he had just started as the music director of a church nearby. Because of his schedule, he asked me if we could start having our lessons at the church (Community Bible Church, or CBC).

I remember walking through the church, reading things on the wall. I just remember thinking, "This is the kind of place I would go, if I wasn't already _in fellowship_."

Forward to 1/19/03. Right after the reading of the letter, my thought was "where would I go". I seriously considered the possibility of just starting a "simple gathering" on my own. Then I thought back to walking through CBC, and what I'd thought. Right away, I went to their website, and read about their statement of faith, and whatever I could find. I fired off an email to the pastor. I remember using the term "Abusive Church", since I didn't know what else to call it. His encouragement to me was to be sure to not just keep looking on what had happened, but to also look at how I could be involved at CBC. And, the best place would be to come on Sunday.

The assembly prayer meeting was replaced with a (rather lively) discussion about all that had happened. That just made it even more clear to me that I didn't want to be there. The meetings were gone, but the assembly mentality was not. The next day or so, I went to each of the two LB's and explained to them that I would not be coming to any more meetings (they hadn't decided to stop meeting). The discussions went reasonably well. One was accepting, but I could tell he didn't agree with what I was doing (more that I was going to a normal church, rather than a brethren type church). The other thanked me for my boldness. I think he was ready to leave, but wasn't yet comfortable with it.

So, I went. I first thought that I wouldn't enjoy "worship", since it wasn't "real" worship. Thankfully, I was very wrong. It was a wonderful time.

This coming Sunday will be my first Sunday of regularly playing the piano with the worship band. It's taken quite a bit of practice, since my piano skills got kind of rusty in the assembly, but I think I'm ready. The Lord has even helped with the pride issue, since one of the other piano player's is extremely good.

Dave