I have held great affection for Tulsa’s Garnett congregation since first learning of it in 1976. She has been a wonderfully bright lighthouse for thousands as we traveled up and down the rivers of kingdom experience. I will always be indebted for her fine and exquisite display of faith and vision. Marvin, Garnett’s first pulpit man, remains one of my dearest friends. How I have been blessed by his mentorship to me. Surely he is the guy who put the smile into our pulpits. Wade, the present and young minister, is also wonderfully important to my heart. His faith runs deep. He has my utmost respect.
Yet, it is no secret this beautiful congregation has encountered turbulent waters of her own. Indeed she has. Attendance and contribution have hit drastic decline. Critics point fingers of blame and make radical comments which wound and even sever the once undeniable bonds of both family and friendships. Hurt will linger in the air for years like smoke from a fire-damaged house.
Should you feel I’m rather raw and even insensitive to write of this matter, such is surely not my intention. It is the opposite. I desire to point out the God-act in the center of this painful development. I believe God is at work in His usual unnoticed style of perplexing human minds to accomplish divine good.
We have preached a lot from the Church of Christ book, Acts. Seldom do we address Acts 8:1-4 where the robust and mighty-in-example Jerusalem church was broken up. It was scattered to spread the church into other regions. The Jerusalem church probably never would have scattered into the other regions on her own. God broke it by way of persecution….and then converted the main persecutionist, Saul. (What a story and what a God!)
I learned this pattern from my elders. One of the reasons we experience peace and productivity at Memorial is because the shepherds allow those who are unhappy about issues here to move on without disturbance. They don’t chase after nor cater to dislikes for it is clear we can’t please everybody. They don’t carry ill-will toward any for not preferring the way we do things, but they gently refuse to hold court night after night in effort to appease the disgruntled. They strongly believe special ones leaving are called to do so by God to bless, richly bless, other congregations.
The spreading of believers has always been a mark of God’s methodic move in the early church. Why is it we applaud the results of Act 2 likeness among us, but criticize Acts 8 likeness among us as if some strange thing was happening? What’s going on at Garnett? My opinion is God is going on at Garnett. His ways have always been higher than ours and always will be.
Our possessiveness of His people damages our ability to see His glorious activity. God works! My brothers and sisters who left Garnett are valuable cells in His body elsewhere. Surely they have offered gifts and talents to other congregations (including some now at Memorial) which had not been displayed in such vigor before. My family remaining at Garnett has my complete and committed devotion. I believe in them. I admire them for their endurance. I count them as alive and thriving. It’s just that their present state looks a little more biblical than we tend to ponder.
Good for you Garnett! I salute you for where you have been, where you are, and where you are going! I will always be blessed by you!
2 comments:
Terry, thank you for writing this. I hope and pray that it is a blessing for the brothers and sisters at Garnett. I think Wade is a terribly courageous soul. He could have abandoned ship long ago as things seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. He continues to point people to Jesus, to building relationships with others. I, along with thousands of others, will always be indebted to Garnett and Memorial ... for decades of service to our brotherhood...and to Jesus. Thanks!
That's a very positive outlook. I hope you're right -- kind of like the Paul & Barnabas split. Too much of the splitting & splintering in our brotherhood has NOT resulted in the kind good multiplication that you're talking about, though.
Thanks for being a positive presence in that community.
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