Seeker Small Groups by Garry D. Poole

Author:Garry D. Poole
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan

BILL COOK’S STORY

Technical Programmer

Elk Grove, Illinois

After years of attempting to resist my wife’s best efforts to get me to accompany her to our local church weekly, a set of events occurred that, looking back, are amazing to me.

I’d been discussing and defending my agnostic position with a long-distance friend who challenged me to read the book The Case for Christ. But while I was an avid reader—mostly self-help books, in hopes of finding greater happiness and fulfillment—I wondered if the book’s author, Lee Strobel, was a priest, a psychologist, or maybe even an archaeologist. I was floored to learn that he was a pastor at a big church not all that far from where I lived!

I immediately devoured the book and then asked my wife, Jean, to check out this author and his church (Willow Creek Community Church) with me. She wanted no part of it, but after twenty-six years of marriage, she was willing to go in support of whatever it was I was searching for in life. We attended a weekend service, sitting close to the exit so we could make a quick getaway if things got too weird. And while I was there, I read a notice in the program about seeker small groups available on the weekends in the atrium.

The next Sunday I went back alone, looking for one of these groups. I was early, but it happened that a seeker leader was there, and he sat down to talk with me. Another leader came by and I kept the two of them busy as I peppered them with difficult questions. I was really questioning how a good person who didn’t know Christ could spend eternity in hell, when a church staff member stopped by. I remember I really respected what he said. He told me, “You know, I also have problems understanding that completely. But there are so many other things that I know I can trust God about, this one issue is not enough to cause me to reject him. I think I can trust God to be fair with this one too.”

I was amazed that instead of condemning me for my questions, these guys welcomed what I had to say. Altogether, I spent several hours talking to one or more of these three men that morning. I drove home blown away by their willingness to spend so much of their time with me.

Over the next few weeks, the guys I had met that Sunday in the atrium occasionally followed up just to keep in touch. Eventually I agreed to visit a seeker small group. They gave my name to Ernie and Ginny Johnson, who called and invited me to come to church with them and a couple other seekers from their group. When I got there, it was great to have people expecting me and then going in the service to sit with me. It was almost like being there with your family.

After the service we made our way to a reserved room, where we enjoyed the coffee and cake the Johnsons brought from home.

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