HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2008 / MAY/JUNE / TAYLOR

MAY / JUNE 2008
VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3

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A R T I C L E S

I am grateful to God
Greg Taylor

 

Yesterday, April 6, 2008, was a milestone for our family. I was officially ordained as a minister in the Brethren In Christ cluster of churches. My ordination took place in the church where I serve as senior pastor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with my wife Paula and our two sons. I have been serving as a licensed minister in this system since 2002, but yesterday was my official ordination. This event was truly a time of celebration for us as we feel we have come full circle. Our hearts were filled with gratitude for God's wonderful care for us and for His direction in our lives. As I was reflecting this morning on God's amazing grace and continued leadership, I put together a gratitude list.

 

I am grateful to God for:

• My family of origin who had a heart for the things of God and taught me to take seriously eternal matters.

• My attendance at Adventist schools where I learned good ethical conduct and an appreciation of God's word.

• God who sought me out when I was in rebellion and sin and saved me by his amazing grace.

• His deliverance from my addictions that were destroying me and would certainly have killed me.

• The chance to go to college and seminary where God gave me a couple of key professors who taught me grace and a deeper appreciation of the word of God.

• My professors' challenge to me to be a man of God's word and to formulate my understanding of God through the Bible and the Bible alone.

• A godly wife whom I met at Andrews University who has stood by my side and always challenged me to be a man who seeks God's heart.

• The chance to serve as a pastor in the Adventist church for 20 years (18 full time) and to be used by God to share the message of God's grace, that I had failed to grasp as a child, within the context of various church assignments.

• The heart stirring that came the day God opened my eyes to the message of the book of Galatians. I can remember so vividly that season when the truth of the new covenant began to dawn on me. Galatians chapters 3-5 especially were like water to my soul.

• Passages of scripture like Romans 14:5-6, Ephesians 2, Colossians 2, 2 Corinthians 3, Hebrews 3, 4, and 8 that came alive with the clarity of God's Spirit teaching me and helping me grasp the mystery that had been hidden from my eyes for so long, the mystery that I had never understood in my years of scriptural training.

• The conviction that came over my wife and me as we began to understand the implication of the new covenant.

 

I am also grateful for:

• The intense fears we experienced as we struggled with things we had been taught from the writings of Ellen White that were clearly contradicting the teaching of the new covenant Scriptures in the New Testament. These fears drove us to our knees in a season of soul searching.

• The hours of agonizing struggle, the tears, the seeking after the heart of God that eventually yielded the courage we needed to obey the Gospel.

• The Former Adventist Fellowship forum (www.FormerAdventist.com) that provided a safe place for us to find fellowship and prayer during our struggle with what might happen to us should God lead us to step out of Adventism. It was a lonely time because we wanted to make sure we were hearing God correctly, and it would have been irresponsible for us to share the struggles we were having regarding Adventist theology with our congregation until we were absolutely sure God was leading us. The forum gave us a place to ask for prayer without revealing our identity at that time. It was so nice to have people praying for us, people who had been over the same road, who didn't even know us, as we sought God's heart and plan for our lives.

• The difficulty of resigning from the ministry in the Adventist church, the church that we loved and served all those years; a church that had been good to us.

• The friends and family that lost respect for us because they could not understand why we were stepping away. Our deep sadness over these losses caused the comfort of Jesus to be even sweeter.

• The difficult days when it seemed we had few friends, when we were criticized deeply and publicly for our stand, for the unkind letters and emails, and most painful, the avoidance we experienced from our former church members and friends. We knew their pulling away was not meanness—it was fear. They thought we were deceived, and if we could be deceived—if pastors could be drawn away from the "truth"—then how could they stay safe? So they avoided us. It hurt, but the presence of Jesus was so abundant in those days. The Comforter was ever with us, and we felt the fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus—truly an honor and a privilege.

• The little independent Vineyard church that adopted us when we had no church family. They loved us, prayed for us, and taught us to pray in a deeper way than we had ever prayed before. We learned so much from that little church. They were truly the arms of Christ to us, embracing us and teaching us so much about the heart of the Father.

• The many months without employment during which we saw first-hand how God supernaturally takes care of His own. We were on a crash course to understanding what faith really is.

• The first church we served outside of Adventism. It was a recent church plant with all the financial challenges associated with that type of project. There was little secretarial help and other assistance I was used to, and I was an associate pastor learning a whole new system. I was starting all over again. It was not easy. But God grew us in that time of obscurity and taught us things we would have never learned in any other way. We became people learning to walk every day by faith.

• The months after our contract with that church was over before we started in our current church. For the struggle of selling a house in a time of market downturn, for the waiting, trusting, listening, believing, being fed as Elijah was with bite-sized portions—and always there was enough to pay the bills and to see how God tenderly cares for His own.

• The beautiful church family we now serve. For the people God allows us to touch for His kingdom. For a chance to lead in a church that is prayer-saturated, Spirit-filled, dedicated to God's word, and sold out to reaching people for Christ. For this we are so grateful.

• For the opportunity God has given us to serve others who are dealing with the implications of the new covenant. We have had the honor of helping scores of people process through the discovery of the Gospel and what it meant for their lives.

• For the chance to help pastors in Africa as they have stepped out in faith. We have seen two of these men connect with other Christian ministries and two others plant independent, new covenant churches. We are grateful.

 

Sometimes we hear our critics say things like, "They only did this because they were looking for the easier way." We laugh to ourselves because we know how far that is from the truth. Yet ours is a path for which we are very thankful because we have seen the hand of God, felt His touch, seen His amazing grace, and experienced His constant provision like we had never experienced it before. And we are so grateful.

Recently we were talking with our teenaged boys and reflecting on God's hand in our lives. They told us that they were so grateful we followed God. They both love the Lord, they have a faith that is growing and maturing. They deal with the teenage struggles, but they told us "Mom and Dad, we are so grateful you followed God. We are afraid of what might have happened if we had chosen to stay comfortable instead of following God and his word." To have two boys who are saved and growing up in the Lord—we are so grateful.

May His name be praised! †

 

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Greg Taylor is founder and director of One Flock Ministries, a ministry dedicated to bringing unity among true Bible believing Christians. He is also the senior pastor of Hempfield Brethren In Christ Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Greg authored the book Discovering the New Covenant: Why I am No Longer a Seventh-day Adventist in which he tells how the incredible message of Galatians and other New Testament Epistles brought him to the conviction that he could no longer teach what was necessary to remain a pastor in the church he loved. Pastor Taylor, his wife Paula, and two teenage sons, Jordan and Matthew, live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Left to right: Matthew, Greg, Paula, Jordan Taylor.