I friend and brother in Christ asked me what happened with the Church in Idaho and said there was nothing on either of my 2 Blogs. So I thought I'd use the response to him and post it on here. I forgot to mention in the below e-mail that the church being sovereign grace, expository preaching, and no separate children's church service, cost us some folks too.
I removed the personal references and a paragraph that was not relevant. Here it is, thank you:
Heyyyy Xxxxx.
The church in Idaho? When I got there we were averaging around 45 in attendance on Sunday mornings. It was about half Air Force personnel. As they gradually transferred out, we didn’t get others back in like had happened in the past before I got there supposedly. The founding pastor was a retired air force pilot but my other two elders said they didn’t think that brought people in but may have helped some other air force families stay once they visited and found out. It was town of about16,000 if you include those that lived on the base. A high percentage of Mormons and a lot of so-called evangelical churches- 2 Independent Fundamental Baptist, 2 Southern Baptist, numerous charismatic and Pentecostal churches, 2 Lutheran (one of them liberal), a couple of other liberal churches, others, and one of similar faith to our’s. Our church first began discussing the possibility of merging or closing the church in about January 2007. With discussions I had with the pastor of the church of similar faith, we found out that a merger wasn’t really an option (because of their end). So we kept in mind and prayer that we would just close down and the people would start going to that church. But what of the pastor? ;-). It sadly is difficult for 2 pastors to go to the same local church after the one closed down. Not only because we may struggle with some things, but the people too. And based on a couple of things that were told to me, our people may have wanted me to say or teach things that could have caused a problem. That’s why I said that church was of similar faith. Anyway I sought the Lord’s will about staying there, but with having to work a job that paid better to compensate for what that church was paying me (I volunteered to lower my pay package several times), it just seemed that the Lord used not being offered a job there to show me it was not meant for me to stay there. I had already talked to a manager at the dairy here when we visited in July 2007 and he even offered me a job before Nola and I left from our visit. I didn’t take it because we had just started the radio ministry and I wanted to see if the Lord was going to use that to build up the church more at Grace Fellowship. Well, our town was 40 miles from where the radio station was (Boise) and I never received one phone call from our town; all in and close to Boise. One man did come to the church via the radio ministry though. So from January 2007 I was sending out resumes to churches looking for pastors and nothing happened with that. When I contacted the dairy here again in January 2008 I was still offered a job. The Lord seemed to be blessing that opportunity and the move so we took it. The church decided to close 2 weeks after we left. I believe the word of God teaches that He has a perfect and permissive will, but I believe that is still in His sovereign control. I didn’t want to be one of those pastors that moved around a lot like many other pastors do. I was in SE Florida for 7 years and SW Idaho for 3 ¼ years. So unless the Lord shows us otherwise, we plan on staying here regardless of whether I pastor at all again, or if I do, with a new church start or an existing church in the general area.
Thanks for asking my brother. I’m going to take your name out and post this on the Blog. Maybe there are more readers in my vast readership (haha) that want to know like you did.
Let me know how things are with family and church. I want to come up to see everyone, but until I get some vacation time built up and the house in Idaho rented out or sold, that will not happen for a while yet. You are welcome down here anytime. I think it would be about a 12 hour drive but much quicker by plane :-).
Blessings bro…
Bret
I removed the personal references and a paragraph that was not relevant. Here it is, thank you:
Heyyyy Xxxxx.
The church in Idaho? When I got there we were averaging around 45 in attendance on Sunday mornings. It was about half Air Force personnel. As they gradually transferred out, we didn’t get others back in like had happened in the past before I got there supposedly. The founding pastor was a retired air force pilot but my other two elders said they didn’t think that brought people in but may have helped some other air force families stay once they visited and found out. It was town of about16,000 if you include those that lived on the base. A high percentage of Mormons and a lot of so-called evangelical churches- 2 Independent Fundamental Baptist, 2 Southern Baptist, numerous charismatic and Pentecostal churches, 2 Lutheran (one of them liberal), a couple of other liberal churches, others, and one of similar faith to our’s. Our church first began discussing the possibility of merging or closing the church in about January 2007. With discussions I had with the pastor of the church of similar faith, we found out that a merger wasn’t really an option (because of their end). So we kept in mind and prayer that we would just close down and the people would start going to that church. But what of the pastor? ;-). It sadly is difficult for 2 pastors to go to the same local church after the one closed down. Not only because we may struggle with some things, but the people too. And based on a couple of things that were told to me, our people may have wanted me to say or teach things that could have caused a problem. That’s why I said that church was of similar faith. Anyway I sought the Lord’s will about staying there, but with having to work a job that paid better to compensate for what that church was paying me (I volunteered to lower my pay package several times), it just seemed that the Lord used not being offered a job there to show me it was not meant for me to stay there. I had already talked to a manager at the dairy here when we visited in July 2007 and he even offered me a job before Nola and I left from our visit. I didn’t take it because we had just started the radio ministry and I wanted to see if the Lord was going to use that to build up the church more at Grace Fellowship. Well, our town was 40 miles from where the radio station was (Boise) and I never received one phone call from our town; all in and close to Boise. One man did come to the church via the radio ministry though. So from January 2007 I was sending out resumes to churches looking for pastors and nothing happened with that. When I contacted the dairy here again in January 2008 I was still offered a job. The Lord seemed to be blessing that opportunity and the move so we took it. The church decided to close 2 weeks after we left. I believe the word of God teaches that He has a perfect and permissive will, but I believe that is still in His sovereign control. I didn’t want to be one of those pastors that moved around a lot like many other pastors do. I was in SE Florida for 7 years and SW Idaho for 3 ¼ years. So unless the Lord shows us otherwise, we plan on staying here regardless of whether I pastor at all again, or if I do, with a new church start or an existing church in the general area.
Thanks for asking my brother. I’m going to take your name out and post this on the Blog. Maybe there are more readers in my vast readership (haha) that want to know like you did.
Let me know how things are with family and church. I want to come up to see everyone, but until I get some vacation time built up and the house in Idaho rented out or sold, that will not happen for a while yet. You are welcome down here anytime. I think it would be about a 12 hour drive but much quicker by plane :-).
Blessings bro…
Bret
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