After we left the church, we immediately began having services in our home. We visited a few churches, but we just didn't have peace. We prayerfully considered them, but in the end God made it clear His answer was “no.”
The pastor of one of these churches came to our house one evening to reach out and be a help to us in any way he could. After he found out that we believed God was leading us to start a church, we were amazed that he actually encouraged us to endeavor to do so. He extended such loving grace and understanding to us, and it was such a gift to be seen as what we really are: not enemies or competitors to their church, but fellow followers of Christ who have a heartfelt desire to work alongside them to see God work in the hearts and lives of the people of our community.
We quickly outgrew our home, and in March of 2014 we rented a building in which to meet. We decided to make it official and voted on a name. In October of 2014, after fervently praying for a pastor, the church appointed my husband as Pastor of Bible Baptist Church of Fall Creek, WI.
We never would have imagined all God had in store for us. Many people still say it's not a "real" church because it was not sent out of another established ministry, but that's okay. God knows otherwise. Through the heartache, the tears, the grief, the pain, He carried us through and led us ever so gently along. He was there to comfort us with His unspeakable joy and glory all along the way. It was painful, but so worth it! The joy and spiritual freedom that we have found have been exactly what our hearts have been longing for, for years and years, and it's all the sweeter for the wait. God will take care of you, too, friend. He will!
~(Josh and) Sherri Bothwell
A Statement from my Mom ~
~ I commented on a post about finances disagreeing with the way he chooses to use the hard earned offerings that people selflessly give. Instead of going back and forth for all to see, I sent a private message letting him know that what he does and how he chooses to handle situations are important to my husband and myself because our grandchildren attend that church. We backed our stand with plenty of Scripture, and instead of him responding to the subject at hand he tried to divert the attention to someone else that I agreed with on another post of his. He went on and on about her and her family. How she and her family don’t attend church, haven’t for many years and they certainly aren’t right with God (among many other things). There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to even mention her in this conversation, let alone go on and on about her. This is gossiping at it’s finest!
Unbeknownst to me at the time, he had gone to some men of the church and told them that he was being attacked by me. He said that I was a preacher hater and that I had formed a clique with a few families in the church trying to cause division. I barely knew the families that he named and certainly hadn’t communicated with any of them. He also lied about my husband saying that he was planning to attend a church service, interrupt it and cause trouble! Anyone who knows my husband knows that he would NOT do anything like this!
When we found out that he was lying about us I sent him a private message asking for his phone number so we could talk. He ignored me! I sent another message a couple weeks later. He still ignored me. My husband sent him a couple of messages, and yes, he ignored him, too! To this day he has not called nor sent us his number.
Preaching about going to your brother when there’s a problem and actually doing it are two entirely different things to him. After all, if he had a problem with us he should have talked to us instead of going to the men of the church and gossiping! Needless to say, he certainly doesn’t practice what he preaches. ~Judy Matthies
"The Hyles Effect: A Spreading Blight" by David W. Cloud (Available in pdf format, but not well-written.)
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