Opinions/thoughts on Reformers Unanimous

[dolfan]

Doing some preliminary research on this ministry and planning an observation visit with my wife at another church doing this. We're interested in this kind of serving (recovery from addictions), it seems (who knew? -- I didn't really picture my own self in this kind of ministry before, but I do now).

With the wealth and breath of ministry exposure here, give me your views, opinions, knowledge about Reformers Unanimous, please!

[dolfan]

Follow up on earlier post.

My wife and I visited Somerville Baptist Church outside Decatur this past Friday night to sit in on their Reformers Unanimous service from 7-9 PM. This is held every Friday night at this time, and that is standard for churches with RU chapters.

In a nutshell, this is what we walked away with:
1. This is a Bible-centered, high-accountability discipleship program.
2. The people in this country Baptist church of 400 or so have committed to the program for 5 years now; on Friday night, there were 17 in attendance and about 3 absences noted by the director (he didn't call them by name, but said he was going to find at least one of them after service that night, figuring they'd fallen off the wagon). They even have nursery available, which impressed me because we all know how hard it is to get people into nursery on Sundays/Wednesdays, let alone Friday nights.
3. People are becoming Christians. One of my former clients from 2 years ago was in the program then, and although he admitted to having "fallen back", as he put it, into drug use for a very short time, he was at the service of his own volition and had been regular again for some length of time. Another guy had gotten saved on Easter Sunday and testified as to how a work conflict was resolved with his employer, and how that studying the Bible had helped him handle it the right way.
4. The program requires no "experts". Lay people can do it, but it requires dedication and a determination to win and disciple a pretty tough class of people -- addicts.
5. The addicts in the program are functional, unlike many I come across in my work. What I mean by functional are people who are gainfully employed or otherwise productive in much of their lives and are not so rock-bottom in terms of the ravages of drug use that they must be institutionalized. These are coping addicts who realize they need to change. The program is aimed at them to offer them the truth about Jesus, salvation through Him, and to grow them into fruitful believers.

With our particular backgrounds and what is in our hearts to do, this SEEMS like the right way to go. We have enlisted the prayer and advice help of an older couple in our church -- he was a guidance counselor, teacher, and worked as a professional counselor in a prison system somewhere up north (don't you like the way southerners say "up north"?) -- and they've agreed to help us go investigate other churches doing this work through RU and, if the Lord opens the door, they've told us they would strongly and prayerfully consider serving with us if we do this or something like it in our church.

Sooooo, if you know of any pentecostal churches doing Reformers Unanimous, I'd like to hear from you. It is a pretty thoroughly Baptist (Southern, Northern, you name it) thing. I talked with the development director and he says that there are only a few pentecostal churches doing it, and they tend not to call themselves RU chapters. What I don't know is whether that is a decision of the handful of pentecostal churches doing RU or if it is a sort of fear-of-the-unknown-driven reservation on the part of the RU leadership. I have the phone number of another leader in their home office in Illinois whom I am going to try and call probably Tuesday (or I may get my wife to do it since this is really something she first sensed the Lord may be calling us to do). We'll figure that out tonight.

Anyway, info you have or just think you have heard would be appreciated, with your prayers.

[dolfan]

Well, I've got a cramp in my stomach. I don't know whether to feel insulted, unaffected, pitying or what.

I talked at some length with two of the men who are in leadership with Reformers Unanimous this week. They have advised me that they do not allow pentecostal churches to use their name (in other words, can't call the program "Reformers Unanimous"). They do allow churches that do not align with them (and, when I say align I mean lock step) doctrinally to use their curriculum and all their accessories (which I have mixed thoughts about and will mention below) for awards, etc. You just can't use the name, which I honestly don't like in particular anyway but figured there's no accounting for taste so I kept that to myself.

My first inclination is to say to them, "Well, you know, I'm probably the most sympathetic-to-your-view-guy-in-a-pentecostal-church-you'd-find." But, I'm not ready to start apologizing for being where God has placed me in the Body, so I'm not going there. My second inclination is just hurt feelings --- and I'm not used to that. I have never experienced such an outright slap in the face, although it was done sweetly enough. But, it is hard to hear, "You're not good enough for us" in one breath and to hear, "but we'll take your money if you pay at the back door" the next. My third inclination is to reject my second inclination altogether as being typically cynical of me, and to actually BE sympathetic to a group of people who really want to be responsible to what they genuinely understand and know as biblical truth. I can't forget that God has placed THEM in the body as it has pleased Him, too.

Why work through all these inclinations at all? Why not just say, "Well, forget it."? Because, I really think this ministry does what it sets out to do. And, perhaps it is just a big ol' open doorway to not be bound by their "standards" and to leverage the substance of what they offer. After all, they still allow folks in pentecostal churches to attend their paid training in their main facility in Illinois, which is coming up in mid-July and we seriously are thinking about making that trip.

Another reason to work through these inclinations is that I am going to have to share this bit of news with my pastor, whom I admittedly do not personally know well enough to confidently gauge his probable response. I figure he's practical enough to let it roll off his back and have the view "let's use their stuff and not let the 'labelling' that's happening here prevent us from seeing that this is possibly the Lord's doing". He's also pentecostal to the marrow of his bones. So, we'll see.

I am not trying to sell this to him. We really want to do this kind of ministry, and this program seems to do what it aims to do, which is valuable on its own. I'd appreciate your prayers as we keep doing some due diligence on this. We need some wisdom.

[Pastor Gary]

I've experienced the same thing twice. The people who used to be in charge of the Awana Program in Hawaii at one time made it clear that they were not very open to Pentecostal churches. Flash forward to a COGOP Assembly when the Awanas had a booth and their National Director met me. When I told him our Hawaii experience he got very upset and said he would correct that ASAP.

More recently I found exactly the service and price I had been looking for at sermonaudio.com only to learn that they will not allow Pentecostals to use their service.

[dolfan]

Well, it is a funny thing in a lot of ways. I'm laughing at myself, too, with some incredulity. Y'know, there's been no shortage of breath spent -- here, too -- in nudging pentecostal folks to open up to non-pentecostals, to recognize the oneness of our fellowship in Jesus, etc. And, then you run face-first into this sort of thing. It is easy to forget that you have to want to agree in order to walk together. That's the only way that differences that don't matter really, truly, actually DON'T come into play.

It is a form of snobbery, for sure. But, God has a way of bringing people together in spite of ourselves.