There was a well known song written by Gene Autry and Ray Whitley back in 1939 called " Back In The Saddle Again." The song describes my situation to a tee. Let me explain.
In 2007 I was a COGIC minister pastoring a small mission church in Winston-Salem, NC. I was a full-time student, supporting my family and the church on my disability check from the VA. I was also caring for my wife who was ill and constantly in and out the hospital. During this time the Lord started dealing again with my wife and me concerning our continued membership in the COGIC. The Holy Spirit would eventually use two incidents to finally motivate us to leave.
The first incident was a radio interview that I did with a good friend of mine named John Coleman in Los Angeles, CA, after listening to his Azuza Madness Series. As I prepared for the broadcast on his website, Into The Word Apologetics ( http://www.johnecoleman.org/ ), many questions and doubts that I had for many years concerning COGIC doctrine were springing up again.
Without going into to much detail about the interview, I defined Pentecostalism as I was taught while Pastor Coleman challenged me on its' doctrinal fallacies. I gave all the right answers according to the "sanctified" playbook, but my heart and mind were not in full support of the words that were coming out my mouth. After the interview Pastor Coleman and I developed a great friendship and my family and I are regular listeners to his web casts.
The final incident was when I was trying to get my mission church officially brought into a district in 2007. I was told it would cost $600 to be able to add COGIC to the end of the church name, $300 to switch my ordination paperwork that was through another church over to COGIC ordination paperwork and another $600 for holding a COGIC pastor's license. I thought about all the hard times that my family and I had experienced in COGIC going back to 1988. I said to myself why would I go broke to be part of an organization that asks so much, but gives little or nothing in return in terms of spiritual or physical nourishment. Right then and there my wife and me left the COGIC, didn't renew the lease on the building that we had been using and set to deprogramming ourselves from 18 years of madness.
Except for a handful of radio interviews and speaking engagements, for the past three years I have done no public ministry. This blog is the first. I feel the Holy Spirit telling me to get "back in the saddle again." The name for the blog came from a radio ministry that I had back in 2000-2001 called Contending For The Faith Radio Bible Class. For those who come pass join me as I endeavor to follow Paul's command to, ....work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12.
