The Redeemed Life Church, Santa Rosa

We broke a couple of our self-established rules last Sunday in visiting The Redeemed Life Church. We'd planned to go to the church of a different old youth group member, but that wasn't to be this time (you're in our prayers Joan and Kim, Jim, Dave and Isaac). 

One of the goals of this blog is to experience churches as first time visitors. We'd like to help churches realize what they look like when they visit a church for the first time. And we'd like to encourage people to have the boldness to visit churches themselves.

But we've been to this church a number of times before. Attendees at this church include former youth group (and Anti-Youth Group) members Jordan Johnson and John Grandberg (though work precluded John from being there Sunday).

The church meets in the home of Todd and Heather Towner. Todd said not to worry about this being our third or fourth visit instead of the first. He said that most anyone who visits their church is already a friend of a member, so they don't have that same first time visitor awkwardness. I don't completely buy that, but I'll take any help in rationalization I can get.

We also usually prefer to remain observers in a service (yes, we always sing along, but we usually don't want to say anything in the service). But in a home meeting like this, pretty much everyone interacts in some way.

The scheduled starting time for church is 10:30 am, but some people arrived late, and there was a good deal of chatting and catching up, so the service proper started about 11:00. One of the church members, Brent Hitman, opened the service with Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around." He played guitar and Jordan played drum box. (I want to make it clear that in spite of the use of this apocalyptic song, the church is not an APOCALYPIC DEATH CULT! I was given permission though, by the Towners, to use phrases like "Apocalyptic Death Cult" since it might increase our page views.)

After the opening songs, there was a time of sharing praise and prayers. Todd and Heather praised God for getting them through a hike the day before that proved much more harrowing, and much longer, than they expected. (Todd referred to the hike frequently in his sermon.) People shared needs for health and housing, and we prayed for those needs.

 

There was more singing, then Todd asked for a volunteer to read Genesis 33 (the story of Jacob's return to his brother Esau). I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure Todd chuckled at the word, "Succoth", which anyone with a bit of junior high spirit would do as well. In the sermon time,  they've been working through the book of Genesis. Todd usually shares, but Jordan and others do on occasion. No one in the church has formal theological training or ordination. (Well, Todd and Jordan have both received online ordinations to officiate at weddings, but that's not exactly Harvard Divinity.)

Todd's message from Scripture for the morning was that, just as this passage includes many rather mundane details of life, we can trust that God will be with us as we work through the mundane details of our lives.

The closing song was "May the Lord" with lyrics printed on the song sheet. This apparently is an ongoing dispute between Brent and Todd. Todd would like to end services with a yretsyM gnoS (Mystery Song) to surprise people at the end of the service. Brent likes the lyrics to be there for people, and he is the one leading the songs. This week, Brent got his way.

People chatted for a while after the service was over.  The women set out to plan a get together for themselves; since it had been quite a while since a shower (wedding or baby) had been necessary. Kids finished playing or working on art projects in the living room, where they hang out during the worship service, with easy access to parents in the other room. (We used that time to ask Jordan a few questions about his church experiences, and then we stuck around and chatted).

We love the people of this church, so it's always a pleasure to get together with them, even if it involves breaking our little rules.

-- Dean

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 5 minutes

Sermon Length: 19 minutes

Visitor Treatment: no particular recognition of visitors

Our Exact Count: 19, including children and latecomers

Probable Ushers' Count: no ushers, no count

Snacks: one family brought warm banana oatmeal chocolate chip muffins, coffee (etc) was available in the kitchen

Songs: The Man Comes Around, Empty Me, Hungry, I'll Fly Away, 'Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus, Psalm 121, May the Lord

Miles to place: 4 miles

Total California Miles: 6,070

Visits with old Youth Group Students -- John and Jordan (the Anti-Youth Group)

For a short time, I was doing interim youth ministry in the church John Grandberg and my nephew, Jordan Johnson, attended. But that isn’t the primary reason they are included in this month of visiting old youth group students, because more importantly, we formed the “Anti-Youth Group."

I met with Jordan after church last Sunday and asked him a question I’ve asked for the last four weeks interviewing former youth group students from three different churches, “What was good about church growing up?”
   

 Jordan said, “Learning Bible stories in church and Sunday School. I didn’t understand them then, but they gave me background for when I did come to know God.”
   

What he didn’t say was what got my immediate attention. For the last four weeks when I’ve asked this question, I’ve gotten roughly the same answer: “Church was a second family. There were older people who were second parents, second grandparents, that cared for me.”  Not what Jordan said.
   

In fact, when I asked what the bad parts of church were growing up, he said, “Everything else.” He never felt accepted by people in the church, except by his own family and only two people he came to know through the church, Todd Towner and John. He felt the church was a country club atmosphere with expectations he never met. In recent years he attended a memorial service for someone from the church, and when he entered the building, the same sense of awkwardness and exclusion returned.
   

Jordan was, in fact, kicked out of the youth group. A precipitating event that led to his ouster was a skit in which a youth group kid was supposed to get a pie in the face. Instead, Jordan threw the pie in a leader’s face. The leader was not at all pleased. By the way, this offends my code for youth ministry, but more importantly, in this case, my understanding of comedy. Someone in authority getting a pie in the face is funny; someone in authority embarrassing someone under authority is not funny (except in a National Socialist State, of course, where bullying is the source of great hilarity).
   

John, also, was also asked to leave the youth group. A leader came to John’s home to let John’s parents know that since John wasn’t working with the program he wasn't welcome. Both John and Jordan feel there was a strong sense that the program and playing the games (literally games -- Steal the Bacon, we’re talking here) were more important than people.

John also had few good things to remember about church growing up. He appreciated the chance to hang out with Jordan (and Jordan’s brother, Jared).  There were a few adults he remembered caring for him (shout-out to you, Leembo!), but not many.

I was no longer working at the church when Jordan and John were kicked out (though I was still attending), and we decided to form the “Anti-Youth Group”. We agreed to meet regularly, usually to shoot pool and eat snacks, but also take a bit of time to look at something in the Bible. We often looked at gross passages -- most anything that featured violence and/or sex. Amazingly, they both look back on that as a time they were challenged to think about God and His Word in a positive way.

One of the most important things about attending their former church for both John and Jordan is that it is where they met the person organizing their current home church, Todd Towner. For both of them, Todd showed love in a sacrificial way that drew them to God.

Jordan said the relationships in his current church gave him the confidence to be the husband, father, student and worker that he is today. John can’t always attend Sunday morning worship due to his work schedule, but he said that the relationships in his church aren’t about just Sunday morning, but the whole week long.

Though church wasn’t a “good thing” for either of them growing up (and Jordan expressed a concern that many people share those negative church experiences), both now appreciate how God cares for them through their church. Jordan said he couldn’t live the Christian life as a “Lone Ranger.”

Thinking about John's and Jordan’s experiences made me think two things, one bad and one good. There are many churches that don’t show God’s love to a lot of people. On the other hand, many times, one person showing God’s love can be enough. Can that one person be you?

-- Dean

Visits with Old Youth Group Students -- Kevin and Sarah

Kevin Lockwood qualifies as one of my former youth group students, but barely. He was in his senior year of high school when I came to Felton Evangelical Free Church; during most of Kevin's junior and senior high years the most excellent Dave Wolter was the youth pastor. But I enjoyed spending a lot of time with Kevin and his then girlfriend, Sarah Hoff, as they served as volunteers in the church youth ministry. They were mature for their age and were faithful in their service. (Plus, for the first two months we lived in the area, we lived in an apartment in the basement of Kevin's parents' house.)

 

Mindy and I have seen Kevin and Sarah (now Sarah Lockwood) on occasion through the years, but we were happy to have a stretch of time with them this last Sunday, going to their church and then going to their house for lunch.

Kevin grew up in Felton Evangelical Free Church (now Felton Bible Church) and Sarah grew up going to San Lorenzo Valley Baptist Church until the middle of high school. I asked both of them to tell me what they appreciated about church growing up. Both of them shared the same word, "family." Kevin said his family always made a priority of church. He grew up thinking of the people of the church as his family, as did Sarah in her church. Kevin mentioned men like Larry Barnes as examples of leadership in his life.

Kevin and Sarah have gone to a variety of churches together through their married life, and when they came to live in the mountains near Yosemite they looked for church home for themselves and their (now) five children.

The first church they attended in the area was associated with a preschool that interested them, but they began to have questions about the church's theology (a little too much love for Benny Hinn and not nearly enough scripture). Then not once, but more than twice, the church's nursery lost track of their kids. And so they left the church, though they are still part of the preschool.

The treatment of children is very important to the Lockwoods. Their children are not only adopted but several of them have special needs. I asked them share their experience of what churches have done right and done wrong in dealing with special needs children.

A good thing about kids with obvious special needs is that people often look for ways they can help. Their initial response is to be kind. But often, mistakes are made.

Once they brought their three year old to a church, and they were advised to leave their non-walking child in the nursery for "crawlers" i.e. the babies that couldn't walk. But their child wasn't intellectually or emotionally right for that age group.

At times it's been appropriate to keep their children with them in the worship service. Sometimes people in churches seem much more concerned about the noise little children make than the children themselves.

Sarah has a friend with an autistic child. This woman's husband, a firefighter, often works Sundays. When the friend brought her child to the appropriate age group Sunday School class, she was told she'd need to stay with her child. In effect, she was told she couldn't worship there.

Kevin and Sarah have greatly appreciated the ministry of Joni and Friends, which ministers to special needs kids and their families. Arriving at an event staged by the organization, the Lockwoods didn't have to ask for help. The staffers immediately called over trained college students to care for kids by means of a buddy system. They're fans of the buddy system; it's a practical way many churches could meet the special needs of children, parents and families just by providing one caring person per child, allowing children to be in groups with others of their own age without overburdening the teacher.

Many churches aren't ready to help parents with their kids, even those without special needs. There are churches with older people who will say they've "done their time" with kids, and it's time for the younger people (which usually means parents of small children) to step up. But parents need an opportunity to concentrate on the Lord apart from their kids. This can be an even greater need for parents with special needs kids.

Parents with special needs kids have doctor's appointments and therapy, along with work and school and everything else that consumes a family's time through the week. A wonderful way a church can help is to provide a buddy for their kids, so the parents and the children can seek the Lord.

-- Dean

            

Oakhurst Evangelical Free Church

In general, worship at Evangelical Free Churches is rather sedate. Amidst the congregation at the 10:00 am worship service at the Free Church in Oakhurst there were some who worshiped with hands raised, including the senior pastor who raised a single hand. But in the back of the sanctuary, one man danced with abandon. And when each song ended he clapped loudly when others seemed to feel worshipful quiet was the appropriate response.

We came to visit this particular church because it's the current church home of Kevin Lockwood, a former youth group student (his wife, Sarah, had graduated from high school before we met her). After the service I asked Kevin about the man in the back of the sanctuary. Apparently, three years ago he was a recipient of the church's outreach to the homeless. At that time he was without work as well. Now not only is the man working but he's buying a home and has regained part time custody of his son. Speaks well of the church's ministry of outreach.

I recognized the pastor during worship because he had introduced himself beforehand. I guess he was curious about strangers taking pictures of the outside and inside of his church. Pastor Bob has been at the church 23 years. When he came to the church, he was a truck driver. He'd pastored before, but it had been a bad experience and he had left ministry for a time. He came to worship at Oakhurst and was eventually asked to serve as senior pastor.

The worship service opened with the hymn, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," a reminder that Easter was just a couple of weeks away. The youth pastor led the worship in a mixture of traditional hymns and contemporary choruses (what's called "blended" in the ecclesiological literature). Along with the two guitars and piano to accompany the singing there was a beat box and a hand drum (bigger than a bongo). I enjoyed the worship and was especially happy with the concluding chorus of "Shout to the Lord", a song that often leads me to sing louder than I probably should.

During the greeting time, we met the couple sitting in front of us, who had led the youth ministry of the church a couple of decades ago -- before the church hired their first full time youth minister (there have been three or four since then). Sometimes on these onetime church visits, I meet people I'd like to get to know, but I know I won't. Guess that's one of the many things heaven is for.

Kevin and Sarah's kids joined a good group of children who sang along and motioned to musical accompaniment. The great thing about children's performances in church is no one is worried about getting it just right. In fact, the things that go a little wrong just make it better. After they sang, the kids left for their worship time.

A little later, the overhead had a message to dismiss the kids to children's church. (The overhead also let us know when it was time to be seated after the greeting time. We didn't get a picture of the slide with helpful arrows pointing down in case we weren't sure where our chairs were.)

The sermon was Part 8 in a series, "God's Design for Relationships," and the scripture used was Ephesians 5: 23 - 33. The topic was marriage. Over the last couple of decades, when the sermon topic is marriage, I've come to expect a disclaimer addressed to single people in the congregation, assuring them that since marriage was an image of Christ and His church, they would benefit from the sermon as well. But there was no such disclaimer. Later in the sermon there was an address to singles, advising them what to look for in a spouse. But the call for some to singlehood that Jesus taught in Matthew 19 and Paul in I Corinthians 7 wasn't mentioned. Perhaps it was in other weeks of the series.

Pastor Bob encouraged the encouraged the congregation to catch up on the rest of the series from CDs that were available or from streaming on the church website. He said this showed the internet was good for something. Good to know.

The theme of the sermon was how the husband was to serve his wife and by providing her he would find satisfaction in life. (He referred both to the saying, "Happy wife, happy life" and "If momma ain't happy, nobody's happy".)  He said the "buck stops" at the husband who is the coach, the CEO of the family.

From the sermon notes: "The man who's willing to trust Christ to create that kind of atmosphere and that kind of love in his home will be the satisfying lover of his wife and children." But the pastor pointed out said that marriage and the family were currently under attack from the world ("every day a liberal judge issues a ruling against marriage"). Again from the notes: "Matthew 16:18, 'the gates of hell will not overpower' that home" and "God's promise still remains for the wife who's willing to be subject to her own husband, and for the husband who loves his wife as Christ loves the church!"

He said that, sadly, many marriages that don't follow these teachings "start as ideal, become an ordeal and then people look for a new deal." He said instead we should "Do it once, and do it right!" I wondered how those words would sound to the widowed or especially to those who were divorced.

At the conclusion of the service we heard the happy voices of older children outside the sanctuary door. We went downstairs to the nursery and children's department to pick up Kevin and Sarah's younger kids. They DID NOT want to leave, which as it should be for kids in church.

Stats:

Service Length: 1 hour 32 minutes

Sermon Length: 46 minutes

Visitor Treatment: We were recognized as visitors in the lobby; there was a greeting time during worship, and visitors were encouraged to get a welcome folder from ushers. The packets contained a tract, information about the church, a pen and a visitor card to fill out and drop in the offering later in the service

Our Rough Count: 165

Probable Ushers' Count: 190

Snacks: Coffee and tea right inside the front door of the building

Songs: Christ the Lord is Risen Today,

            Lead me to the Cross

            Cornerstone

            There is a Fountain

         You are my King

         Shout to the Lord

Miles to place:  259 miles

Total California Miles: 6,060 miles

Kingsman: The Secret Service -- In theaters now!

For quite a few years now, Hollywood has had a villain shortage. I’m not saying there aren’t bad guys in movies anymore. But the screenwriter's challenge has been to find villainous groups.

    

Back in the day, Westerns had Indians (no, they were never called Native Americans then) as the bad guys. So there could be action sequences where dozens of Indians were shot off their horses by our heroes, the Cowboys, with reasonable assurance the audiences would cheer their deaths. But now that we think of them as Native Americans (and, you know, people), cheering their deaths just doesn’t seem like the American thing to do.

The Nazis made great villains, from a little before World War II to well beyond. When the Dirty Dozen (made in 1967) attacked a ballroom full of Nazis, no one was too concerned that some of them were pretty women in gowns. As Indiana Jones said, “Nazis, I hate those guys.” But Nazis now are a little pathetic; sure they’re villains in The Blues Brothers, but comic, mockable villains.

    

Communists provided fine villains throughout the Cold War, but that’s been done for decades now. Terrorists would be the go-to villains, but since the terrorists we’re concerned with are Islamic terrorists, that causes a problem. Hollywood has a concern about not portraying all Muslims as bomb-happy; a reasonable concern.

         

 So what does a screenwriter do when they want to have a set-piece with a lot of human carnage that won’t upset audiences unduly? The makers of the spy film, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” found their solution in the church.

         

SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS

         

To talk about the movie church in this film, we need to give away major plot points. This shouldn’t greatly disturb some of our readers because “Kingsman” is hardly a film that will be used on a church’s family movie night. There is extreme violence and gore in the film, but some of it is animated and stylized to show it’s all in good fun. There is a crude gag used at the end of the film that might lead James Bond himself use the word "misogynist."

         

But as always, we aren’t here to review the film, but the church and clergy in the film.

         

As I said, the filmmakers had a problem. The arch villain in the film, Valentine, has developed technology to make people viciously attack and kill each other. He must find a group of people to test the tech on. Since he sees himself as a sweetheart (played by Sam L. Jackson) he’s not going to test it in a kindergarten class.

         

So we are introduced to the South Glade Mission Church. This fictional church is obviously based on the sadly real Westboro Baptist Church, which gained fame by protesting at military funerals with the twisted rationale that the government supported homosexuality.

         

In the film, South Glade Mission Church is preaching against Jews (the preacher uses this word), workers in the sex industry (he uses a different word), Catholics (he uses this word), gays, and African Americans (alternate words for the latter two). The super spy, Galahad, played by Colin Firth attends this service as part of his investigation.

         

During the service, Valentine activates his device and everyone in the congregation attacks one another. Apparently, knives and even guns are brought to this church only a little less commonly than Bibles. Bloody chaos ensues, but since Galahad has more experience at hand-to-hand combat than the average usher, he eventually stands alone over a sanctuary full of corpses.

         

It seems that filmmakers are saying, in this world full of division, isn’t this a group we can all hate together? In the past, there have certainly been individual clerical villains (Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter comes to mind), but now apparently whole congregations can be the bad guys.

         

If this hateful congregation, far from the teachings of Jesus, is the image anyone has of the church of Christ, then it seems Christians have some P.R. to do.

         

(Bonus clergy bit in the film. One can see a tabloid with the headline, “Naughty Nun Touched My Bum.” And theological bonus, Valentine argues that he isn’t a villain for wanting to cull the world’s population any more than Noah or God in the story of the Flood.)

-- Dean

Livingwater -- Berkeley

I have no doubt that Mindy and I were the oldest people in the sanctuary. There have been Sunday worship services in the last year when we've been among the youngest in the building, and when that was the case we always felt like it was a little sad. Our guess of the average age at the service we attended this past Sunday would be about 21.  Being the oldest people at Livingwater in Berkeley was kind of cool.

Livingwater meets in the afternoons at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. According to the website the 3:30 pm service is the college service, which amused me a little when I entered the 1:30 pm service and noticed that most everyone looked like they were of college age. It might not be worth noting that we were among the few Caucasians in a congregation made up primarily of Asians, but I'm noting it anyway.

Studying the website a little more later I found that they encourage freshman students to attend the later service, and that the earlier afternoon service is primarily attended by upper class students and recent graduates. (There is also a morning worship service in Alameda that seems to have more age diversity, considering the fact that service includes a children's ministry.)

We were attending the service with Shaina and Stefan, currently students at U.C. Berkeley and formerly a regular part of Healdsburg Community Church. Our visiting theme this month is going to church with former youth from my former churches. Livingwater is where Stefan has been attending for the last four months. Shaina started at Berkeley in January and hasn't yet found a church, so this was a first visit for her, too.

The screen in the front of the sanctuary encouraged people to pray from 1:20 - 1:30 pm in preparation for the service, but most people seemed to be chatting amiably. Stefan warned us the church wouldn't start on time because they ran on Berkeley time. He told us all the classes at Berkeley started about ten minutes later than the scheduled time, allowing everyone to be there. Shaina concurred. But the service was only seven minutes late in starting, not ten.

The service opened with choruses -- not surprisingly all the music was choruses -- with a competent worship team with guys playing the instruments and a couple of young women singing. At one point during worship, the leader asked the congregation to raise their hands in praise, and about half of the congregation did.

One of the staff pastors gave the announcements, reading the three announcements off his phone. He introduced a mission team that will be going Cambodia and Thailand. Wearing matching shirts, they performed a dance to "Open the Eyes of My Heart" (whether in Khmer or Siamese, I have no idea). As a prayer was offered for the team, who will be leaving on Saturday, and the congregation was asked to reach their hands toward them in blessing. The offering was taken immediately after, with ushers giving plain white envelopes for those who wanted to contribute to the mission team along with or instead of to the general fund.

 The executive pastor of the Berkeley congregation gave the sermon (from the website I noticed five people on the staff, including a director of children's ministry in Alameda). The text of the sermon was I John 3: 10 - 16, in a series titled "God is Love." The pastor focused on the inconsistency of hate with the Christian life. He recalled working with an angry chef in a restaurant during his college years. The chef seemed to hate him for reasons beyond his comprehending. And he had to deal with feelings of hate for that man. He encouraged forgiveness and imitation of Christ's example of sacrifice. At the sermon's end, he encouraged people who had a hard time forgiving to come forward to pray, and a few people did.

Mindy and I spent time on the U. C. Berkeley campus prior to meeting with Shaina and Stefan. We saw a number of signs for Christian fellowships, but one hears of a great deal of hostility toward the doctrine and values of the Christian faith in classes and in the environment of schools in the U.C. system. It was good to be with a couple of Berkeley students we knew (and a lot of students we didn't know) honoring Christ. It's almost enough to make old people like us invite kids onto our lawn.

Stats:

Service Length: 1 hour 29 minutes        

Sermon Length: 41 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Greeting time early in the service, visitors encouraged to fill out cards available from designated people near the doors of the sanctuary

Our Rough Count: 150

Probable Ushers' Count: 175

Snacks: none that we saw

Songs: Your Love Never Fails, His Glory Appears, Christ is Enough, At the Cross

Miles to place: 63

Total California Miles: 5,542

-- Dean

Visits with old youth group students -- Shaina and Stefan

Shaina Meier happens to be my archnemesis. A few years ago we both decided we were lacking an archnemesis in our lives. My problem, though, is that she is a perfectly delightful person. I enjoyed her presence at youth group and events when I was doing youth ministry at Healdsburg Community Church, and she also did wonderful work in the church nursery and on the worship team. A reasonable assessment of Shaina's character would more likely rank her as a hero, perhaps a Super Hero; which would make me a Super Villain. But I try not to think about it.

Stefan Masselink also attended Healdsburg Community Church. For the last couple of his high school years, Stefan and I got together on an irregular basis for Bible study or just to talk. Mindy taught both Shaina and Stefan for awhile, during their younger years, in Sunday School.

 

Both Stefan and Shaina are attending U. C. Berkeley, and both were willing to get together with us for lunch to discuss their church experiences. Afterwards, we went to church together at Livingwater Church in Berkeley.

Shaina's first church memories were from attending services with her father and brother at a Seventh Day Adventist Church. She remembers potlucks and being rather disappointed with vegetarian hot dogs. But she appreciated the people, and many of the folks from that church are still family friends.

Shaina and her family moved to Healdsburg Community Church when she was eight or nine, and at the new church she also appreciated the people. There were plenty of older people who took grandparent duty, and since she had no grandparents living close by this was appreciated.

Stefan also said he appreciated the older folks who loved the kids in the church and remembered him week to week. His other memory of a church from childhood was the house church his family attended in Italy when they would go for long summer visits. The sermons there, he said, were a little long and dry for a kid, but he appreciated and continues to appreciate the people.

Shaina was quite enthusiastic when she discussed her love of Vacation Bible School at Healdsburg Community Church, both as an attendee and a leader. As a kid she thought the VBS decorations were magical, and as she grew older she felt no reason to change her opinion. She attributes those VBS experiences to contributing to her continuing love for working with children.

Shaina just began at Berkeley in January and hasn't yet found a church home there.

Stefan has been attending Livingwater, the church we attended together, for four months. Prior to that, in his freshman year and the first half of his sophomore year, he had a rather challenging church experience. At that church, he initially found the teaching spoke to his heart. It was a new experience worshiping with students his age, many already his friends. People in the church were divided into small groups who met several times a week for several hours for Bible study, worship and social times. After awhile, though, he began to feel at odds with teaching in the church. They told him it wasn't Biblical to be a romantic relationship. Their teaching about selfishness was that you shouldn't have fancy possessions like a smart phone or a vehicle that couldn't be used for ministry (like a van that could be used to take people to church).

The most challenging teaching about ministry, for Stefan, was that it was selfish to use time studying for classes that could be used for, say, evangelism. Perhaps it would even be best to quit school to concentrate on ministry for the church. This was at odds with Stefan's desire to excel in his school work in pre-med.* Though Stefan still respects many people in that church, he knew it wasn't God's place for him.

Students who have grown up going to their family's church face a challenge when they move off to college. It's easy to neglect church altogether. There are some unhealthy churches that will take in students that are looking for the comfort of a caring church home. But I'm confident that God will continue to work in the already impressive lives of Shaina and Stefan and will continue to use them in His Church.

-- Dean

*Not part of our conversation, but what Stefan said about the church encouraging neglect of studies reminded me of a story Billy Graham used to tell. A seminarian asked him if he should be wasting time in studies when he could be out serving people. Graham told him that if there were many trees to chop down in the forest, it was worth taking time to sharpen an axe.