The Story of How I Came to Church Part 3 - The Christian Bookstore and John the Baptist

(Quick review: Being saved at the age of 20 (1986), I didn't go to "church" till I was 25 (1992) - the details of "why" are in part 2)

One afternoon, at the age of 25, at the end of “wandering in the wilderness,” (although I did not know how near the end I was), I was visiting Don and Buelah’s Christian bookstore. Our conversation became more personal than it ever had and they asked me if I would come to their house for a Christian video one evening. I gladly accepted and went to their home a few days later. Little did I know that they had also invited 4 young single men from their church, Emmanuel Baptist! Two of these men showed up. One of them was John. It was a wonderful time as the five of us enjoyed fellowship and I was thrilled to talk to people who were from an altogether different Christian background…. Yet with whom I already had so much in common!

John followed me down to my car and got my phone number. The rest is history, as they say. Haha

Needless to say, Joe was not thrilled when I told him about it later.
He believed that they were trying to “recruit me to their church.”
“These apostate churches have recruitment programs, you know.”

Over the next weeks, I finally felt the sting of Joe’s harsh criticism upon myself as I moved away from him and his isolationalist mindset. I was told the things that he was saying about me. I was getting my turn. This provided me a lesson about being silent when others are in the crosshairs of someone like this. You could be next and usually everybody gets a turn to be the target of the hyper critical!

I was very glad to put that chapter of my life behind me. God used Joe for good, but he also was a hindrance in many ways.

I then spent most of my time with John. He introduced me to his friends of which he had many. He was very different than me – very outgoing. It was a great time of opening up for me.