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My wife, Barbara and I began looking for a new
church home about one and a half years ago. We
had moved from the east coast back to
Colorado. While on the East Coast we were very
fortunate to have attended a church where
biblical doctrine was very strong and the Word of
God was preached. During our time back in
Colorado we attended several churches that were
in line with popular beliefs for doing Kingdom
business (all by the worlds standards): becoming
a better Christian, "going easy" on how much of
the Scripture is read (one Pastor told us the
Bible is too overwhelming for people), being
filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues,
becoming sinless, lots of programs for every need
of every member, women in the role of Pastor,
evangelism for the purpose of Church Growth,
Communion served very infrequently (because it
cuts into worship time and is hard to
administer), and the purpose -driven church where
people are helped to discover their purpose on
Earth to "reduce personal stress, simplify
decisions, increase satisfaction, and most
importantly, prepare us for eternity." We would
walk out of Church and say to each other, "where is God in all of this?"
Needless to say, we were overwhelmed and very
discouraged.....we knew something was horribly
wrong with the system and we didn't want to
participate in this type of Church. We were
convinced that these distractions from the Word
of God were not doctrinally sound nor were
intended by God for the delivery of His message.
Yet we wanted to be involved in church and wanted
to continue to grow as Christians. So we tried
Church after Church until they would espouse one
of the new philosophies of Christianity. Then the
search would began again. "Just give me Jesus" became our battle cry.
God heard our plea. On a Sunday in December, we
visited Risen Christ Lutheran Church. We were
pleased to find a warm and welcoming congregation
and a Pastor who held firm to the strong and
conservative doctrine of the Bible. We had little
knowledge of Lutheranism or the history of the
Liturgy. We knew we had found a Church where
God's pure word is spoken and embraced. Finally
after our desert dwelling days, we were led to
the remnant: the Church were God's word is
spoken, where it is recognized that we are saved
by God's grace alone, where the sacrament is
recognized as the sacred body and blood of Christ
and where sins are admitted and pronounced
"Forgiven," where the Pastor is serious about
filling the duties assigned him by God. Risen
Christ Lutheran Church is one of God's jewels in this fallen world.
Dennis and Barbara Conn
January 2008
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