Lights in a Dark Place

In the denomination where Rebecca and I have landed, there is a process for future pastors to enter into called coming under care. To officially come under care is to go before the local presbytery and tell them your testimony and sense of call to gospel ministry. Yesterday was my day to go before the presbytery.

There are two people who I talk about every time I tell my story.

The first is my good friend Greg Letherer. My parents removed me from home school in the eighth grade and enrolled me at Western Christian School. Greg was my eighth and ninth grade basketball coach and math teacher. He quickly became one of my dearest friends. Greg was the most godly man I had ever met and to an eighth grader who had spent the first thirteen years of his life hearing about the excellencies of his cult, Greg was an impossibility. The wheels in my head began to turn and I began to understand my group wasn't all it claimed to be. If the most Christ-like man I knew had never heard of Christian Gospel Temple, then Christian Gospel Temple couldn't have the exclusive truth I believed they had. It wasn't overnight, but the wheels were turning. In fact, Greg visited Tennessee about seven years after the move, and I still held out hope of him finding the true church and moving to Tennessee with me. Meeting Greg was the first of many holes that were about to be punched into my whole belief system. I cannot talk about him while giving my testimony without crying.

The second friend who can't be left out of my testimony is Stuart Latimer. Stuart was a pastor at Covenant when I became a teacher at the new elementary school. Stuart has told me many times that he realized I had some odd beliefs, but could see God doing something in my heart. Stuart opened his library and schedule to me and has consistently planted gospel seeds in my life every time we've talked for the past nine years. Stuart is smart and confident. He will tell you so. But I have learned over the years that he is also humble. He won't tell you that. During his last sermon in Nashville, I was moved to tears as I contemplated how patiently he allowed the Holy Spirit to convict my heart of the truths of the gospel. I remember thinking one time that Stuart always had an answer. It bugged me until a huge light bulb went off in my head and I realized he always has an answer because the answer is always Jesus.

Greg and Stuart couldn't be more different, but there is a common link between them. They are men who are deeply aware of their depths of sin and even more deeply convinced of their righteousness in Christ. I'm so thankful for these two men in my life. I'm thankful for their repentance and transparency which flows out of their adoration and appreciation of the gospel. I'm not sure if I'll ever write a book about my life growing up in the cult, but if I do, it will be dedicated to these two friends for being light in a very dark place.