Daily Devotional

June 8, 2023 is the 9^th anniversary of our merge with Palm Avenue Community Church. Here is the story:

Many years ago I became aware of a small local church in our area that was standing alone against its denomination on matters of theology and practice. They chose to stand on what they believed to be the solid teachings of the Word of God. In so doing, their denomination removed them from their association, requiring them to turn over all their assets and facilities. These were precious people who had worked for decades to build, furnish and equip this church.

After many attempts and appeals, their only recourse was to seek legal help to stop what they considered to be an unfair and illegal action on the part of the denomination. In their minds, their local church had not departed from their historically prescribed faith and practice; the denomination had strayed from their charter beliefs. So the battle began. A tiny church against a large, international denomination. Truly, this was a modern-day David vs. Goliath story unfolding. However, it seemed obvious that Goliath was about to win!

Once I discussed the matter with our local church elders, I stood before our congregation and told the story of a church a few miles from us, facing the battle of their lives as a congregation. I cautiously expressed, “Even though they have some slightly different views, we have a responsibility to help our ‘sister church’ fight this giant battle. I am asking us to dig deeply into our hearts and our wallets to help pay their legal fees.”

What happened next was one of the greatest surprises in my ministry. The place broke out into cheers and applause. Applauding an offering. Never before. That is especially remarkable because this tiny church was “not completely in our camp” theologically. It didn’t matter. Our brothers and sisters in Christ needed us—and they needed us now!

That next day we counted the special offering and were shocked at the amount. We had a messenger bring the substantial funds to the church with a note expressing how blessed we were by their courage to stand up for what they believed. We told them we will stand with them.

To our amazement, after many months of legal battles, their church won the case and was granted complete ownership of all the properties, facilities, and equipment. Once again, when I announced their victory, our congregation applauded and cheered.

Shortly after their church settled into rebuilding their new congregation, they merged with a church from another denomination that was also starting to part with the truth. When the two churches merged, they were blessed with a special financial gift from the sale of one of the church’s properties. From those funds, they gave substantially to another church from another very different denomination that was fighting its own doctrinal battle. They shared that they were “paying it forward” because of the generosity of our church. However, their gift was many times over what we gave to them!

Sadly, the other church did not survive the battle and the denomination removed them from their association, leaving them with nothing—and no place to go. I went to our elders with the idea of allowing this local church to use our facilities rent-free. Once again, as we shared with the congregation, they rejoiced. That independent church has now been using our facilities for many years. They have now saved enough money to buy their own facility and will be moving soon. We will truly miss them.

During this series of joint efforts, our church merged with the first church we helped. Since they had merged with a church, we were now a local church with three different denominational backgrounds. In reality, this is the story of four local churches (three that merged), each floating their unique boats in completely different parts within the River of Evangelicalism. All of us have the same goal—to love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and to love one another just as Jesus commanded us. We believe by this, all will know we are truly His disciples who have trusted Him alone for our salvation. That is most worthy of our applause.

To God be the glory!

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation