I shall tell you a story, or was it a dream?
Whether a dream or my imagination I do not know… But I shall tell you about two men and how their lives intersected with Grace Fellowship Church.
Let’s call them BEN and AMIR.
BEN is a member of Grace Fellowship Church. 33, married, with a couple of kids.
AMIR is a 23 year old atheist that just joined the same engineering firm BEN works at.
Over a few months, BEN has several meaningful conversations with AMIR, that lead to them reading the Bible together every week.
One evening while he is watching the hockey game, AMIR suddenly feels the weight of his sin before God. The verses he read last week about being under the wrath of God are plaguing him. But the verses about Jesus' death are holding out hope.
Before he knows it, AMIR falls to his knees while the game blares on. He prays and asks God to forgive him of his sins and puts all his confidence in Jesus Christ to save him.
The next morning, AMIR cannot wait to see BEN at work!
BEN is thrilled at the news and invites AMIR to come to church with him on Sunday. AMIR is glad to go. He loves singing praise to God, hearing God’s Word read and preached and building new friendships with all these new people who all follow Jesus.
After a very short time, AMIR asks BEN about baptism. They read about it in their Bible Study and AMIR heard about a class. So, BEN and AMIR attend the Baptism Class together. There, AMIR is convinced of a couple of things. First, that he really is trusting on Christ. And second, that he would like to obey Jesus and get baptized.
So, AMIR writes out his story of how God saved him and sends that to Pastor Pat.
Pastor Pat sets a time to meet with AMIR and invites BEN to join them. He asks AMIR to explain his understanding of the Gospel and to describe how God saved him from his sins.
AMIR’s ways of expressing things is a little different, but it is clear he is professing faith in Jesus and confessing the Biblical Gospel. Not only that, his entire life is different from what it was. He loves the things of God and people of God…. He loves God!
So, Pastor Pat sends out AMIR’s testimony of how God saved him to all the members.
- The members that have not met AMIR find him and meet him on Sunday.
- Some other members have him over for lunch and rejoice in hearing his testimony.
At the next Members’ Meeting, the elders recommend to the members that they accept AMIR as a new member, and that he be baptized. BEN and a few others speak at the Members’ Meeting about the evidences of God’s grace that they have observed in AMIR’s life.
The members vote in favour of accepting AMIR as a new member, once he gets baptized. They have read what he believes and how his life is being shaped to Christ, and they all affirm this appears to be a genuine work of God.
So, shortly after that meeting, AMIR is baptized during a Sunday service and, since his membership hinged on that baptism, he now becomes a member of Grace Fellowship Church.
Later in the service, he participates in the Lord’s Supper for the very first time. Identifying himself not only with His crucified, risen, reigning, returning Lord, but with all of His Lord’s people in this place, too.
In fact, every time he takes the Lord’s Supper He actively ponders what Christ did, where Christ is and how Christ will return… as he looks around the room and considers how that is true for everyone joining him at the Table. “These are my people.” he thinks. And he fellowships together with them with Jesus.
And not only them! AMIR is learning that there are many churches that preach Jesus and, since his church is in a big city, he delights when baptized members of other evangelical churches from places like Dubai, Dublin and the Dominican show up on Lord’s Supper Sundays and the church extends hospitality to these fellow Christians to join with them.
He particularly enjoys reading the Membership Covenant out loud. He thinks about all the Bible verses he is promising to obey and loves the sound of all those fellow members around him doing the same. It is always humbling to think of where he needs to grow, yet comforting to think he is on the same path with so many others.
Soon, AMIR is caught up in the warp and woof of church life. He is greeting people on Sunday mornings, praying along with his fellow members on Sunday nights, and in a Member Group at BEN’s house on Fridays. He also jumps in to a Foundations Class and spends lots of his social time with other young adults.
He is loving life.
Then his company downsizes.
AMIR gets the boot and starts looking for work. But, it's not going well. His industry is changing and he was not prepared. Weeks turn into months of rejection letters and increasing debt. He is discouraged. Where is the Lord? Why is this happening?
He gets angry at life. Even though he has more time on his hands, he is spending less and less of it with his fellow church members. He is not returning BEN’s texts. He keeps “being tired” on Member Group night.
Soon, he is missing a lot of church. Friends from church are calling and chasing him down, but he never seems to make it out to anything.
Once he finally gets a new job, AMIR fills his life with work. He has bills to pay and he needs to impress the new boss. There is no time for church stuff. Anyway, he’s all good with God. He was baptized after all!
After several months of this, BEN sets up a breakfast with AMIR. After catching up on the new job, BEN reminds AMIR of what he promised in the Membership Covenant. BEN makes it clear that he is calling on AMIR to come back to church.
AMIR hangs his head in shame and tells BEN he will back on Sunday. But when Sunday morning comes he panics… and watches some random church service online telling himself that is good enough.
A few more months of this go by until BEN tells AMIR they need to meet again. And this time, he is going to bring Rocky along. Rocky is one of the young adults AMIR had really connected with.
AMIR invites them to his place and, after praying, BEN and Rocky read some of Mathew 18 to him and tell AMIR that they are now at stage two of church discipline with him.
They make it clear that AMIR is in sin by not meeting regularly together with the Lord’s people. They plead with him that this is not good for his soul.
AMIR listens carefully to his two friends…. and it is like a fog is lifted from his eyes. He tears up and admits he has been avoiding church. He confesses to his friends his sins and they pray for him. He promises to come back on Sunday and, sure enough, he does.
It is a Lord’s Supper Sunday and AMIR is so glad to admit his failings and be restored with the Lord’s people as he meets with Christ at His table. The bread and wine never tasted so sweet.
This little episode of wandering has changed AMIR. He is a man on a mission now and soon he is right back into church life and running hard after the Lord with the Lord’s people.
One of those people interests him more than others. Her name is SHERI and she seems to be quite interested in him, too! Before you know it, they are married with a daughter of their own.
Many years go by and AMIR’s godliness and character distinguish him in the church. His daughter respects him, his wife loves him, he serves. He teaches sometimes and it is really good. People in the Member Group he leads speak of how much he helps them with his wise counsel from the Word. He seems to have a special place in his heart for new believers and always has some little group of guys he is meeting with and praying for.
The elders have noticed all of this as well, so when a survey goes out at the Annual Business Meeting to all the members asking them who might serve well as a new elder, AMIR’s name is at the top of the list.
Soon, AMIR is being formally evaluated for the office. The other elders look deeply at his life and agree the members should consider him as a potential future elder. So, the members evaluate AMIR’s life on the survey provided by the elders.
With excellent results from both, eventually, AMIR is formally presented to the members as a candidate to become an elder. At the next Members’ Meeting a vote is held and the church votes overwhelmingly in favour of calling AMIR to be one of her elders. He is installed as a new elder the following week and steps seamlessly into the role, helping to lead the only church he has ever known.
One of AMIR’s greatest joys in being an elder is watching BEN flourish as a deacon. Even though BEN was a huge success in their field and the first one to share the Gospel with AMIR and to disciple AMIR, he never looked down on AMIR. That was just BEN. A model servant in the church. BEN was like an elder cheerleader!
In fact, BEN was always looking for ways to take some of the more practical needs off the plate of elders like AMIR, so they could carry on with leading the church. BEN loved to serve like this.
Many more years go by and AMIR reaches a point where he thinks it is time to stop serving as an elder. Although still greatly respected in the church, age and health have caught up with him so that he can no longer fulfill the demands of that role.
He does, however, love to teach GraceKids III. And the kids in the church love Grandpa AMIR, too. He prays for them all, every day, and is frequently telling them of Jesus. He has also been known to distribute the odd candy.
One autumn morning the church wakes up to sad news.
During the night, AMIR’s bad heart finally failed. He went to bed that night and woke up in the presence of His Saviour.
The entire church gathered that evening. There were tears of sadness mixed with tears of joy. Even the ones that had only known Grandpa AMIR a few years loved him. How they will miss him!
But, to think that AMIR was now holding another cup and looking at Jesus. It was too much to take in! What a thought! Forever with His Lord. And to think that a Day was coming when all of them would all be together again… forever. What a thought!
After the funeral, the deacons went and met with SHERI. She was sad at the loss of her husband AMIR, but not despairing. Not only that, she has thrilled she was in a church with deacons.
Her own health was not that great and AMIR had always insisted on doing the mowing and shovelling and keeping the budget. She was a bit lost. Especially since their daughter, their only child, had tragically died in a car accident some 15 years earlier and there were no other relatives to speak of. She was a widow indeed.
Soon the deacons had everything figured out.
- One was helping SHERI get up to speed on keeping the budget.
- Another put together a little team to mow, plant, water and shovel.
- One of the female deacons tapped the shoulder of a few of her sisters and they started a monthly fellowship time at SHERI’s house that met right up until SHERI’s last day on earth.
And so Grace Fellowship Church kept plugging along for many decades…
- Bringing in members, sending some out to other churches or the mission field.
- Preaching God’s Word and celebrating the ordinances.
- Shepherding the flock of God among them at any given time.
- Raising up elders and deacons.
- Planting churches.
- Occasionally having to discipline some out of membership.
- Enjoying days of prosperity and peace, and struggling through days of difficulty and potential disunity and strife.
Once they even had a rogue elder start to preach a false Gospel. It took a while to see, but eventually the other elders had to ask the members to remove him. It was so sad. But, once it was done, all kinds of other sins in that man’s life were unearthed and the church was so glad she was spared from being led astray. A deep seriousness came over all the members in those days… everyone was taking stock of themselves.
Then, one day, while they were in the middle of their Sunday morning worship service, Jesus returned!
And of what followed that I cannot speak.
For I beheld things far too wonderful for words.
