For most of my life, from birth to about the age of eighteen, I belonged and attended church at Evangel Temple in Columbus - wonderful place. The pastors there, as I was growing up, were wonderful. Some are still there, while others have gone on to other things. There are a few I remember well; from my younger days, Watson McKemie, associate pastor, is the only one left. Joey Ellis, my former children's pastor, now serves in Rajasthan (where even is that?). Jeff & Libby McFalls, my Youth pastor and his wife now serve at Medart Assembly of God. Probably the most influential man, at least to me, was Pastor Hal Stewart. He was the minister of music for the entirety of my life, directed my performance of The Victor in 1993, watched my growth from Rainbows, to Daisies and Prims through the STAR program (Susannah, Tabitha, Anna and Ruth). He had one request of me; that when I turned 18, I would come and sing for him and join the choir. Unfortunately, time got away from me and I was never able to do that. Pastor Hal passed away in 2002, after a massive heart attack. I still remember where I was when my mom told me that he had died... we were going out to this lady's house to look at a pair of beagles for the Triplets birthday. We were on the way back home, having picked up two pups, and I was cradling the black & white & tan pup. Mom said, "Brooke, Hal Stewart passed away this morning."
I was dumbfounded - in shock - this man, who I had thought would live forever, was gone. Hal Stewart, and the other men of Evangel Temple, had a profound influence on my life. Joey Ellis was my children's pastor - and ultimately was the one who led me to faith in Christ. Jeff McFalls, and the Alpha Chi youth group, were a part of the most formative years of my life. Some of my best memories from church involve the other members of my Alpha Chi group - Paul Fincher, Heath Jackson, Jose Roman, Thomas McBride. As a child, I didn't realize how big Evangel Temple was. I was content in my cocoon of the children's church, then youth. Unfortunately, I never got to experience Evangel Temple as a full-out adult. After I left for college, the new youth pastor (his name, unfortunately, escapes me) told all of us college-age students that we weren't allowed to come back to Alpha Chi. Please understand - I don't think that 19 and 20 year olds should be mixed in with 13 and 14 year olds, but at this time, Evangel Temple's college ministry was nonexistent; we had no where else to go because most of us had grown up in that church and felt weird going to "big church" as we called it. The adjustment was odd. When I did go to "big church" I usually found myself in the back row, with the boys from Carpenter's Way Ranch. (Seems my interest in helping boys from non-conventional pasts is a theme in my life).
I briefly attended Sunday School with Paul Thomas (now the lead pastor) in my parents Sunday school class up through 2005 when I left for my ministry internship with ACMNP. After I came back home, my parents had started attending Wynnbrook Baptist Church in Columbus, because of their youth program and my brothers and sisters had friends who went there. I've only been back to Evangel Temple once since then, a Sunday morning when it struck me how huge the church was and how small I felt inside it. Evangel Temple is where I was dedicated to the church (12.23.82) accepted Christ as my Savior (7 years old) and was baptized (10 years old). It's more to me than a church home - it's been my "home church" for twenty-nine years. It's like leaving a part of me behind when I finally take the step and join another church, leaving behind my Assembly of God heritage and the church I grew up in.
I suppose thats why I've taken so long to make the decision to join another church permanently. I attended Hilton Terrace for several years, consistently, grew in the Word and truly enjoyed the people, the smallness of it, and especially the pastor and his family. The Calhouns are like an extension of my own family, and I'm blessed to have them in my life in various ways. After Bro. Kevin left Hilton Terrace to take the interim position at Wynnbrook, I traveled back over there, where my family had continued to go. While Wynnbrook is a wonderful church, with some good people, it wasn't "home" for me. And so, I made the decision to strike out and find the place that God intended for me to be. Somewhere, in the back of my head, I thought that it would take awhile, and that it would be the church that I would raise my family in. Even then, I knew that I had no intentions of jumping from membership to membership of churches.
Enter in First Baptist Valley (or Valley First, depending on what mood I'm in to call it). This church is unlike any other Baptist church I've been in. First... they're about the most evangelical Baptists, which is something that I love because it reminds me so much of Evangel Temple. Second, I feel like family when I'm there. I think that's partly because of my relationship with Charlie and his affiliation with the church body, but in the eight months I've been going there, they have made me feel like family. I count the members as my friends. I feel comfortable going to church alone there - as in, when Charlie is unable to make it- which is a huge step for me. This from the girl who doesn't enter a room unless with someone, and makes her boyfriend come outside to get her from the parking lot before coming into the building.
I finally took the step of attending a membership class and going through the process of becoming a member, something I haven't had to do. At Evangel Temple, I was baptized and became a member through my parents membership at an early age. The idea of a membership class is foreign to me, though appreciated. It helped me to see the commitment I was making to the church, and their expectations from me. It's harder than I expected though, to leave my Evangel Temple membership behind (though truthfully, I doubt anyone at ET considers me a member anymore; its been so long since I darkened their door). I suppose thats because there's so many memories that I have - so much of my Christian life is wrapped up in the people that make up that church, and the beliefs. I've always accepted what I was told, naturally bought into the idea of Christ dying for me, of God giving up His only son, for my sins. This decision has always been mine to make.
My life is changing and Evangel Temple no longer feeds my needs, in my spiritual life, and hasn't for awhile now. Not because of the leadership, because I adore Paul Thomas and his wife, or because of the people in its attendance, but because my life has changed. The church is the body of Christ - Romans 12:3-5 says: For by grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us as one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. I'm sure that my interpretation isn't correct, but for today, what that means to me is that each of us (individual churches, regardless of denomination) make up the body of Christ - together - each member belongs to all the others. My Assembly of God heritage will not change simply because I am choosing to be fed by the Baptist church. Quite possibly, I will always consider myself an "Assembly of God girl". But, as I said, my life is different now than when I was eighteen; fourteen; ten... I have different needs and those needs require different nourishment. Nanny (Nell), who was one of the most deeply spiritual women I know, and whom I can't wait to greet when I get to Heaven, would ask me if I was being fed spiritually from the church I attended, regardless of where it was. The answer is yes, now, I am.
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