I’m doing a leadership course right now through the church and part of the assignment today was writing out your testimony. Earlier this week in class, it said everyone loves a good story and that your story is powerful. So, I wanted to share mine with you all.
I came to the Vineyard, not wanting to be there. In 2013, my mom was up visiting from Florida, and she ended up telling my younger brother and I that all she wanted for Christmas that year was for us to come to church with her. Before I could tell her, “No, we don’t do church.” my younger brother did, so as the older brother, I felt obligated to go. So, at that time, I let my then fiancé know that we were going to be going to church for Christmas Eve. She chuckled and said, “What do you mean we are going to church?” She had church experience growing up, but she knew that I did not, and that we didn’t do the church thing growing up. The only thing I knew about church was from a Pastor here in Ohio named Rod Parsley. I remember watching TV when I was little and seeing him yelling and screaming and then putting his hands on people's heads, them start shaking, and then it looking like he pushed them over. The only other time I had church experience other than that was when I was younger and dating a girl and I just stepped foot in the building with her because I wanted her to like me. So, I let my fiancé know what happened with my mom and she agreed to go to church with me. We came into the Vineyard that evening not knowing anyone, not even the family that had invited mom. But when we got there, she introduced us to Wade and his mother Pauline, and they seemed nice, so we stayed. After meeting them in the lobby, we went in and sat all the way in the back, on the end of the row, close to the exit door in case I needed to step out.
After we sat down, service started and then someone came on stage and read something and then asked us all to stand back up again, I wasn’t impressed with that. We stood up and the band started playing worship music and Christmas music. There were some typical Christmas songs that I had heard before, but all the other music was new and I didn't follow along. I remember feeling weird as I was looking around and people had their hands in the air, or they were down on their knees, some were even crying. I looked over at my wife and she was dancing with the music and smiling and my mom was even crying. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t want to be a part of any of that. After what felt like forever, we finally got to sit back down. A man came up on stage, his name was Joel, he was the Pastor. I have no idea the things that he said, because I was not really paying attention to him. I was looking at my watch wondering what was taking so long and wondering how much longer this was going to take. After what felt like a long time had passed, Joel invited the band back up on stage and they started playing in the background while he was talking.
To this point, I couldn’t tell you what Joel said on that stage until now. I started hearing him say, "If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, and you want to, I want you to do a brave thing and raise your hand.” I remember saying to myself, “Don’t do it, don’t fall for it, he is going to have you come up there and he is going to put his hand on your head and push you over!” So, I began to look around seeing if anyone was going to fall for his trick or not. A few minutes went by and someone raised their hand and Joel congratulated them and invited them forward. He then said, “I know that this can be scary if you’ve never done something like this before, so if you want to raise your hand you can even ask your neighbor to raise their hand with you.” At this point I remember crossing my arms and thinking, “Dude, nobody is going to fall for this.” There was some more singing, then someone else raised their hand and Joel congratulated them and brought them up front and people started praying for them. He then said another invitation and at that time I remember thinking, “Man, you’re not going to get me, I'm not going to drink the Kool-Aid.” and then I put my hands deep down in my pockets so that nobody could mistake my hand in the air. Joel then said that he was not going to drag things out, but he felt like there was someone else. Then it felt like all the lights went off and there was a spotlight on Joel and one on me and then he started saying things that were actually happening in my life. Not kind of happening. But he listed things that were actually going on in my life. I looked over at my wife and mom and asked them, “What did you do? What did you tell him about me?” That’s the type of person I was then, it all had to be about me. They shushed me, and told me they didn’t tell him anything about me and to be quiet. He then gave one more opportunity to raise your hand, and out of nowhere my hand came out of my pocket and shot up in the air. People started clapping, my mom and wife looked at me so surprised and crying, and I had no idea what was going on.
Joel then invited me up front and I went. I met an old man name Richard Honaker at the stage and he looked at me and said, “What took you so long?” He then told me that I had just made the best decision of my life and that I would never regret it. He then led me through a prayer accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and I have been running alongside of Jesus ever since, looking for the next yes that I can offer to Him and bringing others to know Jesus. Since then, I started attending a small group, then started leading a small group, and now lead our men’s ministry team. I am on our mission's team and have been to Haiti and Brazil now 5 times each on mission's trips. I’ve learned a lot about the things I went through in my first 27 years and the way that formed me and the freedoms that Christ has for me. Through a lot of self-work and realizing how I can depend on Jesus for everything and not myself, even when I don’t understand, life is so much better now than it ever was. Sure, life has its ups and downs still and things can get hard, but now I am able to walk things out so much better because of my relationship with Jesus. This has made me a better father, son, man, friend, worker, everything, than I ever was.
So, my question to you is, do you have a relationship with Jesus? Do you want one? What pushes you away? Are you tired of carrying all life’s burdens on your own, being overwhelmed and exhausted? There is an answer to all of that. A relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not saying religion. Rules. Laws. Expectations. A relationship with Jesus, doing life with him daily. That leads to a head change, to a heart change, then a life change. Then once you have that, you’ll feel like you have the best gift ever and all you want to do is share it!
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