Finding New Wineskins Beyond a Sermon-Centered Church (Part 5 — The Misunderstanding of Christianity)

Abounding Grace was a growing new church with an open mic where anyone could share as they felt prompted by God’s Spirit. It was a new wineskin that was attracting people who were passionately in love with Jesus. However, after Ernie and I had been there about a year, they shut down the mic. The worship was still powerful, but the congregation wasn’t allowed to speak up anymore.

Ernie and I missed the open sharing. We were at Abounding Grace for about 3 years. I continued to be a full-time motivational speaker, trying to focus on my business called Attitude-Lifter Enterprises. I had written a book about positive thinking (from a Christian perspective). It was strongly endorsed on the front cover by Zig Ziglar. I had a sign in our front yard to tell people about it. It said, “Mindrobics–How to Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life.”

Our house was on a busy road that led to the school where Abounding Grace was meeting. When people at church asked where we lived, I would tell them about the sign. It was amazing how many said something like, “Oh, we have been praying for the people in that house. We thought you were New Age.”

Ernie and I were still searching for a gathering where people had the freedom to share. We missed the altar times we had experienced at the Nashville Vineyard. Then somehow, we met Adam Swanson, the pastor of a small church about 40 minutes away in Murfreesboro. Adam was also looking for new wineskins.

Together, we started a Tuesday night meeting at his church where people could testify, share, and receive personal prayer with the gifts of the Spirit freely flowing. Those meetings were full of spiritual power and healing as we ministered to one another as led by the Spirit.

We continued to be part of Abounding Grace. They eventually started a home group in Murfreesboro. The leaders of that group were very open to mutual ministry, so Ernie and I began to attend it. We had a toddler daughter and growing careers that made driving to Murfreesboro twice a week very difficult, so we shifted away from Adam’s church to the new wineskin home group.

The pastor at Abounding Grace shared the pulpit with the church elders and with other people so that sermons weren’t confined to one person. I had wanted to preach there, but I felt like God told me not to ask. But then, one day it came to me to ask, so I did. I was told that the elders thought that I had read too many books about revival and that once I had said that I would do whatever the Holy Spirit told me to. And because of that I could never speak there. So, I gave up the idea.

About a week later one of the elders came to me and said: “Steve, it’s not a full sermon, but I’m supposed to share for about 15 minutes before we serve communion next Sunday. Would you like to take my place?” I said yes and thanked him for his humble lovingkindness toward me. I was able to preach a short sermon the next Sunday, although the church leadership wasn’t happy about it.

About that time, God began to put it on my heart to start walking the streets of the small black neighborhood called Natchez in nearby Franklin. It consisted of a housing project and small homes. I began to spend a day or two a week knocking on doors and spending time getting to know a group of men who hung out on the streets. They were mostly addicts and alcoholics. At first, they we skeptical of me, but eventually we became friends. We talked about Jesus a lot and I would frequently pray with them. They had amazing nicknames like Chicken Dinner, Peanut Butter, Big Bear, Buster, and many others.

Ernie even started going with me some. We were tired of being church spectators and felt like God was telling us to open a church in the Natchez area. We told the elders at Abounding Grace what we were feeling led to do and they even privately laid hands on us and prayed to send us out.

We prayed for a place to meet, and God opened up room in a small Senior Citizens’ center, but it was outside of the Natchez neighborhood. We started “God’s Glory and Grace” there. It was actually named by our daughter. Eventually we found a run-down building on Natchez Street that had been a wild night club called the Big Wheel. We were doing all of this with no church salary.

We started meeting at the Big Wheel building on Sunday mornings in a new wineskin way. Instead of a sermon, we let anyone present share and testify as they felt led by Jesus. It was intimate, caring, and compassionate like a loving support group. We learned a lot hearing each other’s stories.

Elvira who became a regular testified: “I used to party with the devil here at the Big Wheel, now I’m going to party here for Jesus. Her son and daughter-in-law, Charles and Vanessa, started coming and got excited about Jesus. It was an honor to baptize them in a tank. Vanessa used to spontaneously start singing an old Black Gospel song during the meeting with such power that it would give me goosebumps. Her favorite was, “I’m Coming Up the Rough Side of the Mountain.

Also, about that time I began to have voice problems that made me sound raspy and made it very difficult and humbling to speak. This caused my speaking career to quickly decline. Ernie had stepped away from several of her clients to spend more time with our daughter. It wasn’t surprising that we began to have growing financial struggles, basically living off credit cards and borrowed money.

Fortunately, a couple friend felt led to begin to give a week a month of their “tithe” (10 percent of their income) to God’s Glory and Grace). This gave us enough money to pay rent on the building. and to eventually start a free clothes and food pantry for people in the neighborhood.

Spending so much time in Natchez reminded me that while in seminary in Memphis I had felt nudged to see if I could become a pastor in The Church of God in Christ (COGIC)” the second largest African American denomination in the USA. I realized that I had never acted on that prompting, so I contacted a COGIC pastor, and they eventually accepted me as a fully ordained pastor in their denomination. Ernie and I were so blessed being a part of COGIC and learned a lot from them. (More in another episode — or Google Off the RACE Track — From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.)

My mother felt led to begin cooking a meal once a week and serving a free lunch in the building. The guys I had been hanging out with began to come and a few families from the neighborhood. My parents were very outgoing people, and they loved on and entertained all who came for lunch.

A few of Ernie’s friends wanted to help us minister in Natchez and they helped us start outreaches in the small park nearby. They would bring food, gifts, toys, music, games and other activities. You could feel the love that was overcoming a history of long-term divisiveness. It was wonderful.

Spending so much time in Natchez reminded me that while in seminary in Memphis I had felt nudged to see if I could become a pastor in The Church of God in Christ (COGIC)” the second largest African American denomination in the USA. I realized that I had never acted on that prompting, so I contacted a COGIC pastor, and they eventually accepted me as a fully ordained pastor in their denomination. Ernie and I were so blessed being a part of COGIC. (More on that in another episode.)

Then one day our friends who were giving part of their tithe to God’s Glory and Grace called us. They were members of a famous megachurch in Nashville. They said that one of their pastors had preached a sermon and said that all of their tithe belongs to that church and if they were giving any of it anywhere else, they need to stop. They apologized but said they felt obligated to shift their giving back to their church. That big rich church effectively ended the ministry of God’s Glory and Grace” in Natchez.

Ernie and I were struggling more and more with financial problems. We had cut back expenses, put our house on the market, and prayed more and more. My voice problems had all but ended my motivational speaking career. We were in trouble, but God wasn’t going to let us down. Stay tuned for the next episode:

If you live in the Nashville, Tennessee area come and experience the current episode with us. Every Saturday morning at 8;30 we host a Christian support group at Chile Burrito, 330 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37307.

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