Set Free From the Denomination
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (05/22/07)
When I left the denomination after being in it since 1964 upon graduating from seminary, friends have asked if I miss it.
Honestly, I don’t. I don’t miss the denomination at all.
When I was unfairly undercut by the nasty politicos of the system in August 1998, God opened up the house church ministry. It has been my refuge in freedom ever since.
At the time, it was quite painful dealing with the betrayal of those I had thought to be friends. However, it turned out to be one of the most blessed moves the Father ever dealt me throughout my entire pastoral ministry.
You see, when I was ousted, I came to know who my real friends were. Sadly, they numbered about a half a dozen. When I was undercut, it was if I had died. Those with whom I had served on committees, shared cups of coffee and do-nuts at clergy meetings and attended annual district assemblies responded to my ouster as if I had been buried. Actually, as if I had never been born.
That was hard to take in a way. But that was truly a gradual relief. It became the honest picture. And honesty is one of the cleansing virtues a person can wash in.
I have talked with others who have experienced the same bureaucratic betrayal. They have related a similar phenomenon of those thought to be friends. Interesting parallels, aren’t they?
Also, I was set free from such utterly needless wastes of time. In the denomination there are numberless reports to fill out and mail out and respond to again and again. Most of them have no everlasting reason. But no more for me.
Also, there are countless unnecessary clergy meetings that demand traveling distances far and wide. In the state of Maine, getting to one evening meeting could consume an hour and half one way. But no more for me.
Add to these senseless wastes of phone calls ad infinitum. They were basically defined as dead air. What their meaning added up to was about half a minute eternity time. But no more for me.
Then there were the local congregation’s board meetings, committee meetings, annual elections, ballots to be printed, bulletins to be typed and copied and folded, newsletters to be typed and copied and folded, and so forth and so forth. But no more for me.
There were the church lawns to mow. The church parking lots to plow out when it snowed. But no more for me.
There were the church and parsonage maintenance details to tend to and repairs to underwrite. But no more for me.
There were the denominational appeals for budgets to be paid—district budgets, general budgets, educational budgets, mission budgets, and more. And if your meager church treasury did not fork out the stipulated amounts, you got blacklisted. You were scolded, sometimes at the public district assembly—either vocally from the platform or in some public printed report distributed to all. But no more for me.
It will soon be nine years since liberated from all this twisted bureaucratic corporate imitation nonsense. I can hardly believe that fresh air I have been privileged to take in in all that time.
I would have never dreamt it was possible. How could I have ever logistically managed the transfer from denominational bondsman to house church ministry freedom? I could not have managed the turn-about. I would have had no idea how to bring it off.
But God did.
And He did it perfectly—though painful for me at first. However, were we not promised some pain when making this cross journey?
Now with our house church so simply framed by the Spirit, we in this Early Church mode treasure our freedom. It’s freedom from membership lists, committees, boards, elections, letterheads, copy machines, duplicated this-and-that, accountability to political conniving "from the top on down," and on and on.
It has truly been a most exciting and rewarding ride. And I have only God to thank for that turn of events. Those who meant the ouster for my ill did not know God defined it for my peace.
I am forever grateful to heaven for His oversight.
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
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