I always feel it's God's will that we find a good church home if we can.
Just my two cents worth.

Cecily

-----Original Message-----
From: Echurch-USA The Electronic Church
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pat Ferguson
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 8:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Right Church

Phil,

Thanks for sharing that with us. I have had a few bad experiences with
Churches, and I haven't found a Church that I would feel comfortable with.
I want to attend a Carismatic Church, but there isn't one in this town,
though there are some Spirit Filled people here in town.

My Church is all of you loving ones, and our Prayer and Praise group on
SAturday nights, and also our Bible Study on Thursday nights.

I spend a considerable amount of time in prayer every day, and I'm
constantly talking with God.

I pray that I will find the right Church some day soon.

Tell me your thoughts, please, Phil.

Love and Blessings,
Pat Ferguson


At 11:18 PM 1/22/05, you wrote:
>Finding a church is always a problem.  It seems to have become even more
>difficult than ever before.  I know how hard and difficult this is from
>personal experience.  So I was meditating about this situation the church
>finds itself in these days.  How do you know if you are in the right church
>or not?  How can you find the church the Lord wants you to be in?  Jesus
>answers this question pretty well.  In Luke's Gospel, Chapter 15, verses 3
>through 6, Jesus uses an owner of sheep as an example.  He explains that
>there is one man, who owns a hundred sheep.  Upon discovering one was
>missing, he left the 99 sheep and went out looking for the one lost sheep.
>Upon finding the lost sheep, Jesus says, the man rejoiced.  Have you ever
>had a pastor, that was so dedicated, that if you left his church, he would
>come and find you and encourage you to return?  I have known a couple of
>pastors, shepherds, who would do exactly that if someone left their church.
>I personally had one pastor that was of this nature.  Otherwise, of my
>nearly 48 years of walking with the Lord, having many pastors over nearly 5
>decades, I personally only have one Christian friend, with whom I have made
>an agreement, that if either of us ever walk away from the Lord, either due
>to sin or lack of desire or confusion or whatever the reason, we have agree
>to come after the one who has walked away and do everything in our power to
>bring that one back.  We are just Christian brothers and we have literally
>been there for each other more than once when the wheels have come off our
>relationship with the Lord or when we have face spiritual heartache.
>
>I left a large church once that averaged, one summer, 1800 people every
>Sunday during all three months of that summer.  I ended up becoming the
>youngest deacon, at age twenty-one, that church ever allowed to serve as a
>board member.  I preached several times on Wednesdays and during chapel
>services in their 1000 student Christian school and spoke in Bible
>conferences there.  I was supported by that church financially as a guest
>speaker when I traveled for several years and spoke in churches.  My oldest
>sister taught in their kindergarten for 26 years.  All three of my children
>attended the Christian school operated by the church.  When I left, with my
>family, in January of 1986 to join a Charismatic church for the first time,
>I wrote the pastor a 9 page letter.  I gave him my testimony of how the
Lord
>had been leading me in the past 4 years and how that had led up to my
>decision to leave the church to join a Charismatic church.  He answered my
>letter and basically said I was theologically and doctrinally wrong but he
>wished me the best.  He never called me.  He never came to see me, even
>though we literally live across the street from the church.  In his letter,
>he never tried to get me to think again.  He never asked if I would go out
>to lunch with him and talk about what had occurred in my life and why I was
>leaving.  Six months after we had left, two men, both deacons from the
>church, knocked on my door one evening.  I was home alone, for some reason,
>so I invited them in.  I wondered if they were there because we had left.
>They talked with me for over a half an hour but nothing was ever said
except
>that they hadn't seen me much lately.  They never asked if I was going
>elsewhere or if I had any problems or needs of any kind.  It appeared they
>did not even know I had left the church and become a Charismatic.  This
same
>church, by the way, allowed my three children to remain in their Christian
>school.  When the school board voted on scholarships?  My children were
>passed over because, we were told, we were Charismatics now.  This same
>church stopped doing business with me, I ran their entire tape ministry for
>many years, because, they said, I was a Charismatic now.
>
>So this is my personal opinion.  It isn't Gospel.  It isn't even really
>doctrine, although I have already told you what Jesus said about the
>shepherd and his concern for just one lost sheep.  By the way, these were
>100 sheep and not 100 goats.  Sheep are depicted in Scripture as
Christians,
>and goats as those without Christ.  So, again, this is my personal opinion
>so take it for what it is worth.  If you are in a church with a pastor who
>would not care if you left, wouldn't come to at least discuss it with you
in
>person, forget this telephone call garbage, and didn't care enough to try
>and get you to return, you may have a pastor but you don't have a shepherd
>for a pastor.  He may be called but not to pastor/shepherd sheep, and you
>won't be ministered to when you need it the most.  In short, you don't
>count.  Cynicism or truth?
>
>I was recently accused of being a cynical Christian and that if I didn't
>change my ways, he warned, some people might take me wrong.  After days and
>weeks, and now months, of reflection, meditation, and prayer concerning
this
>man's comments to me, I came to the conclusion, but what if I am right and
>they are wrong?
>
>Phil.