My name is David Reed, Please permit me to share a little about my family and me. My wife Pat and I were both born and raised in the same town in southern California. We were actually born in the same building only a couple of years apart in El Centro, California. Our major difference in growing up was she was raised "Baptist" and I was raised "Foursquare". My church was on one corner, hers a block east on the other corner. Who would have thought the two would ever meet. The two did meet but only after high school and my three-year hitch in the army. I started going to the Baptist church but not for the doctrine, I was there for my bride. Her church embraced me, even permitted me to sing in the choir. We were married in June of 1967. We will celebrate our
43rd wedding anniversary next June.
Along with Pat my other passion was scripture. We managed to save enough money to move to Los Angeles where I attended Bible College. Impossibilities became stepping-stones to more trust in His promises. We learned very early on that money is only an accessory to life. Our response to our needs was the simple discipline of tithing no more money worries. The real prize was trust in Him and being committed to one another. I graduated from Life Bible College in Los Angeles in June of 1971. After graduation I worked toward ordination at the Barrington Avenue Foursquare Church in West Los Angeles. It was in my college years in Los Angeles that I grew in a desire to communicate from scripture to people what I believed to be the heart of God. My biggest problem was that I was terrified to speak in front of a congregation. Once I had twelve pages of notes, finished in about seven minutes and had nothing else to say. I swore I would never get up there again. In the service as a paratrooper I had made 33 jumps from airplanes and was always terrified, but speaking in front of people was even more terrifying. What made the difference were the people in the church. It was their acceptance, care and encouragement that propped me up until I could with confidence verbalize Biblical truth. I will be eternally grateful for them letting me persecute their church for about a year they even paid me for it.
In April, 1972, I was assigned to serve as pastor in Ontario, Oregon, and our family, which now included our two children, Kathy and Josh, moved to the Northwest. I received ordination in February of 1973. It was in Ontario that I learned I could not make church happen, and I burned out. I had it figured wrong; I thought I could serve God and be rewarded for it. It is sometimes a hard lesson for clergy to learn that God needs no one to serve or work for Him. He is actually independent of anything or anyone. He just is. He does a great job of sustaining the universe, and doesn't even break a sweat. But just maybe (like Peter) we may get to hear the two awesome words "Follow Me". I believe the difference between serving and following can have eternal ramifications. Serving you only need to be good at what you do and it will probably work for you (good job). Following (like Peter) you may find yourself crucified upside down on a cross. Someone has said, "If Jesus calls you to follow Him, why stoop to being a king". The rewards of following Him are voiced by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 1:12 "I know whom I have believed". What more reward can there be than to be able to say " I know Him".
I believe our church to be a unique expression of Christ in our community. Nothing speaks louder than a changed person, and we have a few of them running around our church. Not from rags to riches, but from a life of despair, to faith and hope. As pastor, I feel I am at my best when simply explaining the Jesus of the scriptures, His Cross and His forgiveness. I have found over the years this message never grows old. We are friendly but shy away from trying to be trendy or seeing the gospel through rose-colored glasses. God knows we have problems. Because of our sin we are damaged and if not for the grace of God, who can stand. We try to lay aside our pretentions and cast ourselves on His mercy, not our performance. What the cross provides is somewhat like marriage; it is a plunge into the unknown. We become one with truth in its purest form, in the person of Jesus Christ. If the marriage takes, Jesus is not a weekend accessory, He is the systolic and diastolic pressure of a new heart.
Most of us run on the treadmill of life where issues of security, economic anxiety and keeping the status quo keep us at a pretty good pace. Holding on seems to have taken the place of being held. Unfortunately, we begin to think that church and a relationship with Christ automatically interface and someday we will go to heaven. An old friend of mine used to say "there is no life in the church, there is only life in Jesus Christ". The cross is where my life ends and His begins and He has promised it will never end.
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing
That Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more. Death no longer has
has dominion over Him."
Romans 6:8-9
