From the Archives: 2008

By Allan Blume

When I was 10 years old, my life and the lives of every one of my family members was radically changed for the better.  It all happened because a church in the neighborhood where I lived reached out to my family with the love of God.

Before we moved to the neighborhood, my family was nominally involved in a Baptist Church.  Occasionally, we would go to church on a Sunday but it wasn’t something any of us took seriously.  When we moved, we didn’t attend church at all, even though there was a church within 1/2 mile of our house.

At the time of our move, my father was a successful businessman.  It was because of his business relationships that he began drinking socially.  That social drinking led to full-fledged alcoholism which began to destroy the success he had built.  Eventually, he lost his job, his car and we were behind on our house payments.  It was in this very time-frame that the church down the road began to reach out to us. 

One Sunday my mom looked at my older brother and me (he was 12 and I was 10) and said “Why don’t you boys ride your bikes down to that church.”  We did just that and people of the church really showed love to us.  Because of that we kept going back, until one Sunday my mom went with us.  She was so moved by the love she felt there and the message she heard that she gave her heart to Christ that very Sunday. 

When we got back home she told my dad what happened and encouraged him to come with her the next Sunday.  He was somewhat defensive and said, “I joined a church when I was a boy.  It didn’t do me any good then and it won’t now.”  My mom tried to tell him that what had happened to her was real and had nothing to do with joining a church, but he wouldn’t listen. Yet, in spite of his belligerent attitude, the next Sunday he went to church with us.  I’m guessing he went because he had seen a real change in mom. 

When we left the church service that morning my dad was visibly angry.  When my mom asked him what was going on he said, “That preacher talked to me like I was the only person there and I’m not putting up with that.”  I remember him literally swearing to never go back to church.  There were over 200 people in the service that morning, so it was ridiculous for my dad to think that the pastor had singled him out.  Of course, I know now that it was the Holy Spirit who was dealing with my dad and drawing him to God because the very next Sunday he went to church with us again.  That very Sunday my dad responded to the altar call and went to the front of the church to speak with and pray with someone about receiving Christ as His Lord and Savior.  As my brother and I saw our dad go forward it made such an impression on us that we went forward too.  I remember distinctly the man who explained salvation to me and led me in prayer to receive Christ as my Savior. 

Since I’ve been involved in church work so long, I know that there are times when children or teens follow a buddy or an emotion to the altar and that whatever it is they experienced wears off.  But I know something deep and profound and real happened to me that day.  I remember that afternoon saying to my brother “I don’t know about you, but I feel so clean inside.  It’s like I don’t even want to do some of the bad things we’ve been doing anymore.”  My brother agreed that he felt the same way. 

Just a few weeks after that, my 8 year old sister got saved too and my whole family got baptized together.  From that day on, things changed dramatically in my household.  My dad, who had been to rehab centers several times for his alcoholism, completely stopped drinking from the time he responded to that altar call.  He got a new job in sales and quickly rose through the ranks of his company to become the Executive Vice President.  He went from being a drunk to someone who made a sincere effort to honor God in all he did. 

Though I didn’t know it at the time, I found out later that it took my dad two years to pay off his liquor bills.  That’s in addition to paying off all the other debt we had run up.  I knew then that when his life had turned around he made a decision to tithe no matter what.  It made quite an impression on me to see what a tangible difference it made in a person’s life when they sincerely purposed to put God and His interests first.  That example and the way God blessed and changed my whole family laid the foundation for my call to the ministry.  Experiencing the miraculous change God brought about in my family, motivates me to share that those miraculous changes are possible for anyone’s life, marriage or family.