Feb 25, 2015
Cumberland, Maryland
By Pastor Ron Higson
The Full Gospel Seventh Day Baptist Church first met together as a group in January 2007, but the story begins farther back with a seed that lay dormant for many years.
As a young married couple, we attended a Seventh Day Adventist church and heard someone mention SDBs, but I didn’t think much about it (the seed was planted). We stopped going to church for a few years and then started attending a Methodist church where we received Christ and became actively involved. A wonderful pastor there encouraged us to become involved in lay speaking. I served as a lay preacher for nearly three years and recognized God’s call on my life to preach. After this, we attended an Assembly of God and then a Baptist church for a while. Looking back, I think all these things helped us grow and prepare for where God was leading.
The seed sprouted when God reminded me about the Sabbath and SDBs. I found the denominational website, discovered the Central SDB Church in Maryland, and went to visit. That led us to the closer Bell SDB Church of Salemville, though still too far for weekly attendance. Our grown children and their families moved back to the area and we met for about ten months at home on Sabbaths for Bible study.
Twenty-four years after the seed was planted, it bloomed! We met with leaders of Bell Church and received their blessing to become a branch, stepping out in faith to plant a church. God really provided as we found a very nice building at an unbelievably low rent to hold regular worship services (January 2007). Our second location was a church for the same rent. After four years we longed to have our own place where we could meet beyond Sabbath mornings. God led us to our current church, which we were able to buy, where we have been meeting for over three years.
Though it may sound like everything went smoothly, it really didn’t. With each move we explored new locations and the doors kept closing. Then we would wonder if we really heard God right. But sometimes the “no” was really “not yet” and the door that seemed firmly shut suddenly opened!
Like any new church plant we have our ups and downs. We’ve lost some people and gained some. The blessing of being able to worship God on His Sabbath with people of the same convictions has far outweighed the struggles.
One surprise has been realizing that, though small, we are meeting the needs of people who might not otherwise be in church. One woman looking for a Sabbath-keeping church found us online. She said one of her main concerns was whether her son would be welcome, as he has intellectual disabilities. We said, “Of course he would. Why would he not?” She said, “You’d be surprised,” recalling some past experiences. She has since become a member and continues to marvel at how
comfortable her son is with our church family.
With God’s help and blessing we’ll continue to grow and expand even further. Last year we invited Patty Petersen to come and help us do more evangelism and outreach. She has us reaching out in new ways and often reminds us God is more interested in our availability than our ability.
For those who have heard the Holy Spirit’s leading to plant a church, please do not become discouraged when things do not seem to be happening in the time frame you think they should. God may have something even better awaiting your church. Remember how God promised Abraham that he and his wife Sarah would have a child and they did, in His timing.
