News & Events

 FIVE IN A ROW (names have been changed to protect the broken)

I did a double take.  Just a few months back at one of our Worship Gatherings, I saw five people sitting in the same row of seats, four seated together and one a few chairs down.  Let me explain why this is such an amazing demonstration of the Good News.

Seated in one of the chairs was Diego.  He had just been baptized two weeks earlier, along with two others at Threads.  All three have become Christ followers recently.  However, Diego started his “orbit” around God through Threads six months earlier.  He had no church background in his past, had hit bottom in his life, and found Threads online.  He stumbled across a verse his daughter had brought home on a piece of paper from a church she visited with a friend.  This verse spoke of love, something that Diego knew he didn’t have.  He certainly wasn’t giving it to anyone around him either.  As he stood there reading that verse, God broke his heart.  He met us at Threads and began searching hungrily through the Bible.  He did this in our Worship Gatherings, and a one-on-one mentoring relationship we set up with another Christ follower within Threads.  After a journey of searching, Diego accepted the forgiveness and grace God offered Him in Jesus.  

But that’s just one person in the row.  Also seated next to Diego were his two daughters.  He had visitation with them and began bringing them every other weekend with him to Threads.  The fourth person seated in the row with Diego was his girlfriend.  And then there was the other woman in the row…a few seats down from Diego.

Living far from Christ, Diego used and abused different substances.  He also had an affair and followed that by divorcing his wife.  He had broken up with the woman with whom he had the affair, but several years later she now bumped into him as a very new follower of Jesus.  She noticed right away the difference in him, and wanted to know what had changed.  He invited her to come with him to Threads. This woman, Sue, began coming because she, too, realized something was missing in her life.

So, now, Sue began to understand God’s truth and love for her.  She responded by accepting that love and grace into her life.  Sue and Diego both began discipling in our Learning Communities and started reading the Bible together.  Now, they sit in the same row, with Diego’s daughters…and this other woman.  This other woman is Diego’s ex-wife, the one Diego cheated on.  We first met her at Diego’s baptism.  He invited his ex-wife, who we learned was a Christ follower, to witness his baptism.  Those of us who knew Diego’s story, affirmed his ex-wife and the amazing grace she demonstrated by supporting him, even when this girlfriend was there.  

But God was not finished.  As Sue and Diego studied through the Gospels, they continued to learn of God’s passion and commands for marriage.  They both demonstrated amazing integrity and authenticity as they realized their relationship was not in God’s will.  Now they have broken off their relationship and have begun to learn to relate as spiritual brother and sister, as God intended for them.  A woman is now mentoring Sue to help her grow further in understanding God’s acceptance is her source of identity, rather than a dating relationship.  

Meanwhile, Diego and his ex-wife are beginning baby steps towards reconciliation.  Diego now realizes the power of the reconciliation of God through what Jesus did for him, and now he knows God’s power is moving him back to his ex-wife.  At the same time, we see both this family being put back together and this former girlfriend growing as loved daughter of our Father.  Where else would you see the grace for all of this to happen?  I love it when church works.  The love of Jesus is powerful.  To quote Rick McKinley, it’s a beautiful mess!