I started attending a church and participated in Bible study discussions and it all seemed to go over very well. Then the elderly pastor invited me to preach and I simply made it clear I was not available for that. I had done sermonettes in WCG and I wanted no part in being active in that way. After a few months the pastor needed to go into retirement because of his age and health problems. The church council called me into a meeting and told me they would accommodate me in any way possible if I would take on at least some of the preaching while we would be seeking for a pastor. I responded that it would take a miracle for me to be physically able to do sermons at that time. They responded that they were ready for the miracle and "...let's get on with it." Since I have difficulty standing for a period of time, I selected using a stool behind the pulpit and that worked well for a while.

The next thing I knew I was also teaching Sunday School (Bible Study). I was becoming physical drained and knew I could not continue long term at this. I started cutting back a little on what I would do as much as I could without leaving them completely without someone filling in. This, of course, meant that some times I would show, not expecting to preach, and no one else would be there to do it and I could not sit there and let them down.

One of the church council members told me that "God personally told her" that I am supposed to be doing the preaching there. I have no reason to believe God is working in that way and I made it clear to her that I could not accept such an unlikely claim. I noticed a tendency to come into "possession" of me and I came to the conclusion that I needed to stop going there.

In the meantime I visited several other churches, but I have not been comfortable with either of them. I think maybe there is one out there somewhere on my side of my city that should be okay and maybe in time I will find it. Or, perhaps, God will lead me to it. As you have said, we do not need to be in a hurry about it. I have been out of WCG only two years. So I can still take plenty of time. The past few weeks I just have not gone anywhere. I still hope to locate one that I can fit in with comfortably, but it hasn't happened yet.

I have come to detest several things about churches now. For one, I strongly agree that most churches are in sad shape now. I don't care how large and financially sound they are, spiritually they have become duds. I believe most churches fit well into such category. Also, I strongly dislike being preached doctrines that do not come from the Bible. If you preach it to me, prove it to me. I hear false doctrines preached wherever I have visited and I've enjoyed about all of that I can take. Plus, the arrogance of demanding that I owe a minimum of 10% of my pension PLUS offerings offends me. The New Covenant is not about all that. Having said that, it is my desire to financially support whatever church I might become a part of, but I have no intentions of submitting to such demands as I hear from most of them. While I'm not attending any, I am not supporting any. 

At the present time I am just enjoying a break. I personally feel freer to be away from church right now. I feel so good not to have to respond to someone else's expectations to be at church services when I don't really feel like it and especially when I don't really feel I am finding Jesus Christ there. I found that at my church they would expect people to be there every time the doors opened and I never wanted that. .

Also, I have determined I can listen to J. Vernon McGee that I have located through the link on your site. I haven't heard much of him yet, but I look forward to getting more into it.

I'm not really worried about not feeling so much like I fit in somewhere within a church, per se. In fact, I'm not presently convinced that a person has to be involved in organized religion as we know it to know and follow Jesus Christ. I see so many problems with so many churches that I'm not convinced He is involved with much of that. In my considering other churches I have done searches on the internet on various ones I thought of and it quickly became discouraging. When we understand that the real church is the body of Christ, which is, His called out ones, then the organized religions fail to muster up.

I certainly consider myself a Christian and in fellowship with God. One of the things I came to repent of was the denying of my Christianity before my affiliation with WCG. HWA told us we were not, and could not have been, Christians before following him (it was made clear to me there were "no real Christians outside of WCG") and I let him convince me of that. Actually, I was about 11 years old when I came to the foot of the cross and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. Of course, when I went into WCG  I accepted their word and thought that I became a Christian only by being baptized into this church. What a mess we can get into when we allow someone else to do our thinking for us

By Clark

Note from ESN: A number of members who were Christians prior to WCG seemed to have a connection with each other in the group. Of course, HWA always told us to let go of any such belief that we could have actually been converted prior to being baptized by his ministers. It's amazing how Christ drew His true sheep out and gathered them back to Himself again.

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