Here begins 2 of the most exciting years of my ministry life...Bible College. I believe every Christian should attend Bible college...it isn't just for ministers. In fact, ministers would have a much easier time if the people they were guiding actually knew something about what's being preached. In the Western world, Bible teaching churches are rapidly being replaced by full-service ministries, where the members just pay their tithes and everything else is done for them...studying, reading the Bible, teaching their children about God, etc. If you're called to be a minister, Bible College isn't really an option. During this 2 years of my life, I was immersed in God's Word over 60 hours per week. Nothing has been the same since.
I grew in God, learning more of Him and of me. He spoke to me on numerous occasions and I did what he said, sometimes with surprising results. One time, for instance, He told me to invite a student from China and her mother to live with us while we help the student get settled. The young woman was bi-polar, but nobody knew that until they were in our home...except God, and He didn't tell me. Talk about excitement! Have you ever had a Christian point a boning knife at you and tell you she is going to take you out of heaven?
In a few months, we got her meds balanced and she was stable enough to live elsewhere. She called me from China a few years later to thank us for helping, tell us that God had healed her. She was not using any meds, was married and had a little baby. Praise God! If He had told us of her illness, we may not have had the faith to be part of her healing.
I was elected on the student council as VP and graduated Salutatorian. Some people have an idea that a small private Bible College is somehow easier than a liberal arts college. Having studied in the California University system, I can tell you the hardest courses I ever took were at that little Bible College. Of course, I made it harder on myself by picking the hardest and most controversial subjects for term papers and taking Greek as an elective...can you imagine? Here is what I decided about Bible College...I'm here to get from it, not through it. I haven't regretted it.
How do you feel about studying the Bible? Is it worth a real commitment and sacrifice to really know God? Do you feel you can rely on what others tell you about things?

The next episodes turned out to be the events that ended my tenure at this church.
First, a young woman who was a good friend of ours at the church went to another pastor in excitement over the fact she had just received the gift of tongues from the Holy Spirit. Now I can't explain tongues or any other Spiritual Gift, nor can anyone else. If God is small enough to be explained He isn't big enough to help us. (I've started a discussion topic on tongues here http://www.web-church.com/christian-forums/index.php?showtopic=23.) Though I can't explain them, I believe in all the Spiritual Gifts. Well, the pastor told the woman, "we frown on that here." She left the church for one where the Holy Spirit wasn't frowned on.
The second incident was when I made my preaching debut. I preached on how the joy of the Lord is our strength, ending with an alter call where 2 people prayed to receive Jesus. A friend of ours went up to the corner of the alter to pray separately for those coming to Jesus. She fell over (what people call slain in the spirit).
The next morning I was called into the Senior Pastor's office for what I was sure to be a pat on the back for letting God use me. Instead, I was told that the woman who fell over had been disobedient and that their family was asked to leave the church. This incident eventually led to my being fired and the denomination pulling my ministry license...not for some dreadful sin, but for being open for God to move in His way.
This may sound depressing, but God had already made provisions for my next post and He informed me of them in very miraculous ways: See "God Confirmed Calling By Calling" at http://www.web-church.com/christian-forums/index.php?showtopic=6, and "God Knows What's Coming" http://www.web-church.com/christian-forums/index.php?showtopic=7.
I just love Him!
How do you feel about churches expelling people for worshiping in their own way? Have you ever been expelled?

I was given a full-time voluntary post at a large church (250 members). My duties included Outreach, Small Groups, Building Fund Drive and building volunteer crew coordinator. Frankly, they could have given me the ministry of toilets and I would have gladly served. Marsha and I poured ourselves into God's work...sometimes 100 hours a week. We spent four exciting, fun, depressing and sad years, until God called me on to the next post.

To learn how to speak, I preached weekly in two Senior Centers. Oh, the mistakes I made! I also registered for mail-order ministry courses at the denomination's Seminary. Because the church was short of money, they had no funds for our outreach into the community. No worries! I recruited volunteers to put on fund-raisers so we could pay for printing handouts and training materials. One of the best ones was a parking lot flea-market. It was the best because it got people in the neighborhood onto the church grounds, rubbing elbows with church members. We made money and reached out to the community all in one event. Everyone, except a few overly religious members, loved it.

This brought me to one of my first ministry insights...why do congregations spend half the money God gives them on a facility they only use a few hours a week? It seems like a terrible waste. The main room is usually used less than 20 hours per week (12%), including cleaning and rehearsals. The classrooms in most churches are used less than 4%. Our overly religious ones gave the excuse that this is God's house and that's why flea markets, scouts and other groups shouldn't be allowed to use them. I figured, if it's God's house, let's see to it He gets the best return on His investment He can. I scheduled lots of community events, twins club meetings, Sheriff Gang Awareness seminars. New people were beginning to come to church as a result of these programs. Sad to say, this caused problems for a congregation happy to worship with the friends they knew but uncomfortable with the unwashed strangers. Great education for a new minister.

One day, a couple, claiming to be harassed by demons, asked for help. Having read things like this in the Bible, I thought it was possible...silly me. For some reason, every time I tried to share about Jesus with them, they interrupted and talked about a different subject. Not until another minister and I prayed with them to ask Jesus' help to get rid of the demons, were the people open to receiving the Gospel...and then they were not harassed again. Frankly, I couldn't say one way or another whether it was evil spirits. I did sense a strange smell that left at the same time the people calmed down and received Jesus, but I haven't experienced anything like that since.

As the word spread about our "demon" encounter, I came to learn there were churches...whole denominations...who believed spiritual things don't happen any more. I came to learn it because I was in one of those churches. I was questioned very pointedly by my Senior Pastor concerning the incident. He informed me that this church didn't like the open expression of Spiritual gifts...that it disturbed their sense of order. He suggested I read a book that tried to explain these things in purely psychological terms. Personally, I believe the Bible. I didn't know if these were evil spirits or the victims were somehow demented. I figured these were the two possibilities. Since the only way to reach the couple was to "cast out" the demons, that's what we asked Jesus to do. Two more people had given their lives to Christ, but this, somehow, just put me at odds with my church.

And, this was just the beginning...