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We now return to Church Searches of Mark’s Life.

As I began a new search for a church ten years ago, after feeling compelled to leave Big Dallas Bible largely because of authority and freedom issues, I had the following requirements:

1. I wanted a church where I would have the freedom to follow God’s leading in ministry.

2. I did not want the staff of the church to have too much power. I especially did not want there to be an attitude that a staffer had to have their thumb on every ministry.

3. I required that singles not be treated with “a differing measure.�

4. See numbers 1, 2, and 3.

Nah, I did have other requirements similar to my last search. But these new requirements were by far the biggest priorities. And in this transition, I was frankly quite sensitive in these areas, almost painfully so.

There were some other small changes from my previous requirements though. I still wanted a good Bible teacher, but that wasn’t as important to me this time. And I didn’t require a big singles group from my home church. I had been going to other church’s singles groups for some time now anyway. Also, I no longer required a church be close to Dallas. I had gained attachments closer to home.

I decided to check out Denton Bible Church first. Their pastor, Tommy Nelson, taught the Metro Singles Bible study on Monday nights down at Prestonwood Baptist. It was huge, growing to about 2000 singles while I was there. I went to Metro a lot and really liked Tommy’s teaching. (Well, I was checking out the girls, too. But anyway.…) And God had definitely been using his teaching in my life during trying times.

The first service I went to at Denton Bible was a bit of shock though. There was singing, maybe a couple announcements, then Tommy’s sermon. It was excellent, talking about how to find God’s will – very timely for me. But then almost as soon as he was through, he announced, “You’re dismissed.� And that was it. I was a bit startled. They didn’t even pass the plate!

I’m not from a liturgical background, but even I found this service simple to an extreme. That didn’t bother me much though. As long as a service wasn’t obnoxious or too hard on my attention span, I was fine with it. And Tommy could hold my attention with his excellent teaching for a long time.

But the first service was not as surprising as the things I found out next about Denton Bible . . . as we’ll see in the next episode of [swelling melodramatic music] Church Searches of Mark’s Life.