That Time We Lost Laura's Niece

Southside was named for its location, on the “south side” of the Chesapeake Bay. They were about six years old and part of a group of churches called People of Destiny International (PDI), which was what they called an apostolic and church-planting ministry.

An apostolic ministry is one based on the early New Testament where Jesus’ disciples became the Apostles and led the church as it grew. PDI had begun during the Jesus Movement in the seventies in Maryland, near Washington D.C. It started as a para-church Bible study which grew to thousands.

But as the leaders began to study the New Testament more, they concluded that the best way for people to grow and mature was to be committed and accountable in local churches. They shut down the Bible study and started a local church. Then they started planting other churches with the leaders calling themselves apostles to oversee the growing movement.

I also discovered another aspect of the church that very much intrigued me. While they affirmed that they were Charismatic, they also described themselves as essentially Reformed which is a very unusual mix. Reformed theology emphasizes the tenets of the Reformation, which, in-turn, purports to reclaim the teachings of the apostle Paul from the New Testament.

What was interesting about this to me is that I had grown up Arminian. Arminianism traces back to a theologian named Arminius who, in contrast to Reformed theology, asserted that people have free will. Reformed theology emphasizes God’s sovereignty. Growing up we had a teacher in school from South Africa who was Dutch Reformed and my brother and I used to debate with her over Reformed theology versus Arminianism.

More recently, I had been discussing Reformed theology with my brother-in-law, whom I greatly respected. He had grown up Mennonite, which is Reformed. So, while I was actually starting to wrestle with the claims of Reformed theology, I found it interesting that I would be led to a church that believed in it.

The debate over Free Will and Sovereignty has been going on for a long time. There is seeming evidence for both sides in the Bible, sometimes from one chapter to the very next. There are also strengths and weaknesses to the practical outworking of each side.

I discovered that Southside also had the small groups that we were looking for. However, I wanted to wait until Laura got back to start going so that we got to know others and they got to know us together. I continued to attend though, still sitting in the back to avoid attention. 

Laura’s first time attending the church was not the positive experience that I had had. She returned from Europe and at the same time, her ten-year-old niece, Mindy came to visit from California. We got to church a little late and one of the ushers seated us down toward the front, left. But a woman in the row seemed like she was trying to edge us out. It was very uncomfortable. Little did we know that she had some kids down the front who would be coming back to the seats.

The church had about forty minutes of singing at the beginning of the service and the school auditorium where they met had an orchestra pit in the front. Some parents encouraged their children to go dance in the orchestra pit during that time. Then they would return to their seats for the announcements before a break to go to their classes. 

Obviously the usher that seated us didn’t know that the woman in the row had kids who would be coming back. We found out soon enough why she seemed to be acting so weird. There were still a couple of seats available so I left Laura and Mindy and went to stand in the back until the break. But that wasn’t the only mishap that day.

Mindy was a very social girl and she wanted to go to the class for her age. We found out where it was, dropped her off in the room and went back to the service. When the service was over and we went back to the room to pick her up there was no one there! There weren’t many people around back there but we started asking whomever we could find. No one seemed to know. So here I was, trying to get Laura to like this church and the first day she comes, we lose her niece.

I was scared. I decided to go straight to the front door to make sure no one took Mindy out while Laura kept asking around. After a little while, Laura finally came down the hall with Mindy in tow. Apparently, it had been some kind of progressive classroom arrangement and she finally found her in another room. We thought that was kind of weird but we were just happy to have Mindy again. It would have been nice for someone to have told us beforehand. Two strikes for Laura on the church.

Going to Busch Gardens with Mindy