Being military, we moved around quite a bit. And the first thing we always did upon relocating to a new area was to find a church home. This was the first time that we were looking for a new church home without moving. The most important thing to both Floyd and me in considering a church home was doctrine. I didn’t look for a place where I could serve Christ, but someplace where the spiritual needs of our family would be met, and that only happens in a doctrinally sound church.
The first Sunday that we visited a new church, we always started with the Baptist church closest to our house. That was Hilltop Baptist Church. The preaching was excellent, and the people were incredibly friendly, but there was a tension there that left me feeling uneasy and I didn’t know what it was. Floyd wanted to go back the next service, but I wanted to visit Immanuel Baptist Church. I had been taking a 10 week class on Wednesday nights, and every Wednesday I drove by Immanuel Baptist Church, and every week on my way home I thought, “We should visit this church.” So we did.
Now when we didn’t return to Hilltop, Pastor Barry Wilson decided to pay us a home visit. In fact, he stopped by on two or three different occasions to visit us. But he never caught us at home. I found that incredible because as a stay-at-home mom I was almost always home, and I always answer the door, even for salesmen or Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses or Girl Scouts selling cookies.
After visiting Immanuel several times, Floyd and I joined. The church was doctrinally sound, and we absolutely loved the pastor and his wife. But it was a very small church, so almost immediately, the Awana commander asked me to take over the Sparks. During our ten years at Immanuel, Floyd and I held a number of positions. Floyd was trustee and treasurer. We taught the teens for about a year. I led the ladies meetings. We were active and very involved in all areas of ministry, so when our pastor contracted cancer, he leaned heavily on Floyd to cover for him during Wednesday night Bible study, Sunday school, and sometimes Sunday evening service. It was all he could do some weeks just to preach on Sunday morning.
When Pastor Craft passed away in June, 2011, Floyd was in a position to hold the church together, which he did for four months. Then the church voted in a divorced man to serve as interim pastor and that stripped Floyd of all authority. As the church leaned toward liberal doctrine, we felt the Lord leading us to move again, so we revisited Hilltop Baptist Church.
The preaching at Hilltop was every bit as good as I had remembered it. That’s when I learned that Pastor Wilson had made a number of attempts to visit us. Now both Immanuel and Hilltop were doctrinally sound Baptist churches, so did it matter to God which one we joined? Yes. That’s also when I learned the importance of finding a church where we could serve Christ. And God knew that Immanuel would really need us when Pastor Craft got sick. So I believe he kept Pastor Wilson from visiting with us. If Barry had caught us at home, we would have invited him in and learned about his son being in the hospital and the tension due to the church withdrawing from the Southern Baptist Convention. He would have addressed my concerns and set my mind at ease.
I have no doubt that we would have joined Hilltop back then. And it wasn’t that we couldn’t serve Christ at Hilltop, because we’re serving Him there now. But God knew what Immanuel was about to go through, and at that time, He needed us there.