A male believer D (pseudonym) had served in a church in Henan Province for many years before he left it more than a year ago because of some unresolved disagreements. It is not uncommon for pastors and believers to be forced to leave their original churches for various reasons.
The cause of the disagreements was that the pastors of the church believed that D was taking the "Pentecostal path", which they considered completely wrong. Meanwhile, D was regarded as a heretic and having gone astray, for which he was thrown out of the church.
D said that in the first three months after he left the church, despite being a grown man, he was in great pain with tears at home every day. After all, he had stayed in that church for more than 20 years with deep feelings for it. "But what hurt me the most was that they labeled me a heretic with a connection to Pentecostalism."
"Over the past year, I have tried to reason with them three times. A while ago, I still contacted someone in the church. Finally, they said that I could go back if I fulfilled two conditions. First, I wouldn’t contact with the outside world, especially the Pentecostals. Second, I must terminate the college student fellowship in my home. I really couldn’t agree to such conditions. Otherwise, the people in the university fellowship would lose faith,” D said emotionally.
It has been more than a year since Brother D was expelled from the church. He described that afterward he felt closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. When serving in the church, he was always very occupied with church affairs. Now that he has left, he has much personal time for spiritual practice and seeking intimacy with God.
When believers are united, the church can be well developed. However, when the church is separated, the relationship between individuals and God can be well developed. People may be divided, but D believes that God never makes mistakes, but makes all things work together.
After being thrown out of the previous church, D realized that his situation was not an exception. There was another group of believers in the same city who were also kicked out of their original churches because of their connections with other churches. So, they felt for each other and gathered together, which could be considered a church. But they were not very professional in the claims of Jesus for there wasn’t any teacher to lead them or anyone to preach to them. After learning that D had left his church, they invited him to preach and nurture them twice a week.
Almost all these believers are locals who own the meeting venue, so they don’t need to pay any rent. Other expenses are also very limited. Since they were all banished, there would be nowhere to give offering even if they wanted to. After getting to know D, they invited him to preach to them. "They pay me 2,000 yuan a month, for which I'm very grateful. God is helping me faithfully. (During this period, D gave his son over 200,000 yuan for his wedding.) This is a great grace that God has given me. Precisely because of God’s amazing grace, I have the confidence and courage to continue serving like this，” said D.
After D was expelled, he was very disheartened and even planned to completely give up on serving and find a secular job to make a living. However, he experienced God’s faithful comfort and help when suffering through pain and hardships. As his wife also urged him to continue serving, he did not quit the ministry or earn money with a secular job.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
