The Road To Repentance

Pastor Mitchel's story is all too common in that I grew up in a Christian home, went to church every week, showed up to all the volunteer days, and I thought I was a good person.  It wasn't until I was in my 30's and my life was falling apart with a failed first marriage and a short time in jail that I wondered, "What's wrong with my life?"

In the Spring and Summer of 2010, I found myself driving an hour to work each day and that same long hour home again, and I don't really know what prompted me, but I bought an MP3 player and downloaded the whole sermon series on Romans from Dr. John MacArthur and I would listen to a sermon on the way to work, and another one on the way home.  It was during this time that I was confronted by the Holy Spirit that I wasn't as good as I thought I was, and that all the things I was doing to prove I was saved didn't help my cause at all.

I learned all about repentance and how it was more than just being sorry, but rather it was a change of mind, a change of heart, and a change of action.  Most importantly I learned that repentance wasn't just a one-time event, but actually a continuous mode of living for the real follower of Christ.

Through many hard lessons and tears over those months, my life changed from being a religious person to being a disciple of Christ.  This new life of being an ambassador for the Kingdom of Christ is what has inspired us to ministry and the next phase of our life.

Becoming A Deacon Despite The Odds

Many churches have strong opinions on what the husband of one wife, or literally a one-woman man is. (see 1st Tim 3:2, 3:12, Tit 1:6), but holding to a popular opinion without researching the actual words and context has left many great men across our country branded with a "scarlet letter" so to say.  

After teaching our adult Sunday school for 10 years, majoring in discipleship, and true grace, I did an overview of Timothy in his discipleship relationship with Paul.  I remember vividly the day I taught through the qualifications for Elders and Deacons and I made the statement that none of the qualifications were lifetime litmus tests or we would never be able to have qualified elders or deacons.  I told them that any man who indulges in pornography or flirting with other women, just because their "bird is still in the cage" in relation to their wives that they are not a one-woman man at all.  This qualification wasn't a pass or fail litmus test, but a question of what is their life is like now.  One of our older deacons stood up in my class and with tears in his eyes confessed that he believed our church has been stuck in a 40-year mistake.  That year we appointed our first deacon who had been divorced many years ago.

Two years later, in January of 2022, I was nominated and approved by the church to finally serve as a deacon.  My encouragement to any man who has been divorced is to not look back and dwell on the past but to press forward in following Christ (Phil 3:13-14).  You may find yourself in a church that doesn't believe that God's grace is sufficient to cover a divorce, and you need to determine if you can continue fellowship with that church or find a new one.  Remember this though, there is not one pastor, board, or committee that can stop you from doing the work of a deacon in serving others in your church, and to that end we should all strive to be the greatest servant to those in our church.

Have you ever looked around your church and wondered why there are so many empty seats?  Now consider what would happen if all the sudden you had 10 new believers who wanted to follow Christ and they want to know what steps they should take.  What would YOU tell them?

From a very early age I was given the impression by my dad that the most important thing we could do for younger believers is to teach them in a way that they could understand.  No need for fancy words, or eloquent speech, but for regular people to bring the truths of the Bible to light using the language of ordinary people.

It was our RESPONSIBILITY.

Responsibility is a compound word derived from Response and Ability.  God has blessed my wife and me with the ability to teach and counsel.  The Discipleship Center is our response to what God has given us?

In the summer of 2017 we started thinking about how we want to live in our retirement years.  Both my wife and I are simple country folk.  We thought about moving out of Illinois to settling down somewhere in the country and spend our days sitting on the porch in rocking chairs, reading books and sipping ice tea, however, God changed our heart and we have decided to forgo a traditional retirement and instead work at our mission until the time where we are too feeble to be of any use and then hope God takes us home quickly.

We want to use our home as a retreat for others to pause and consider how to follow Jesus. Maybe by showing others how we follow Jesus, we can help those who are struggling in their marriage, with their finances, with addictions, with depression, with life choices...

​Maybe by calling others to follow us as we follow Jesus we can help lead them out of where they are struggling and down a path towards where they should have been all along.