Mr. Spencer,

My name is John Sanders. I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 27 years. It wasn't until last summer that God finally broke through the wall I put up and placed His hand on me. I resisted for about 2 months until I realized it was God Who was trying to get through to me. I asked that His will be made known to me and in September I renounced all ties to the LDS church and excepted Jesus Christ into my life.

Since then the Lord has blessed my life in ways I never thought possible. For the first time I am content to sit back and watch Him make His will known to me. It is amazing to me still that my salvation has already been paid for by His blood.

I have had the good fortune of being in close personal contact with the ministry, Gospel Truths, located in Grand Rapids, MI (just 30 miles from my home town of Holland, MI). The executive director, Luke Wilson, has been a guide and friend to me through this journey. I have no doubt that the Lord is behind this ministry.

I am also writing to let you know the importance of your work and diligence. Without websites like yours, I doubt that I would have yielded to the call of the Lord. His work with yours and many others is a living testimony that He truly loves those that are caught up in counterfeit Christian religions.

I feel called upon by the Lord to take a public stance about my conversion. It is important to inform our fellow brothers and sisters of the dangers of Mormonism. I greatly admire those who take to the roads and bring this message to the masses. I struggle with this call everyday and wonder how I should go about fulfilling it. Should I actively seek out these opportunities? How do I go about asking churches if I could share my message with them? I have had the opportunity to speak with Luke Wilson at a Baptist church about Mormonism. It was a wonderful experience and I knew then that this is what my work is to be. I am just looking for a little guidance from those who are in this field. Any help would be appreciated.

Your brother in Christ,

John

John,

Praise the Lord for His victory in your life!

I'm so glad you were able to meet up with the Gospel Truths folks. I don't know Luke Wilson personally, but I know the work of Gospel Truths. They have been a blessing to thousands.

John, the call to ministry is such a personal matter, it is difficult for me to give you much advice. I have been in full time Christian ministry for twenty years, including ten as a pastor. However, I know that a call to ministry is between God and the man being called. There are, however, some things that I think apply to all situations.

First of all, be sure that you are plugged in to some sort of established oversight. If not a denomination, at least a group (like Gospel Truths) which has established a reputation of credibility and godliness. I am a strong believer in the local church as a covering. (I myself have been licensed as a Foursquare minister for nearly all of my twenty years.) An oversight organization gives you strength. Not only the strength of credibility they lend to your ministry, but also the ability they have to bring adjustment and correction to your ministry.

I don't know how old your are, but you should not be in a hurry. The Bible indicates that a man's ministry makes room for itself in the lives of others. One way to tell if you are a leader in the body of Christ is to see if you have credible followers.

Further, you need to be thoroughly grounded in the Word of God. And you need to become mature in Christian character. One of the problems I see among the so called "discernment ministries" is a (sometimes) lack of pastoral patience. I wrote about that in my book Heresy Hunters: Character Assassination in the Church, and got in a lot of trouble with some of the pop-apologists. But the work of apologetics is a very special and sensitive calling and should not be left to short-tempered and impatient brothers.

I dont mean for any of this to seem daunting or discouraging. After all, none of us measures up to our call. With Paul, we need to understand that we are the "chief sinners." We need, at the bottom of our hearts to understand that "all ministry comes to broken-hearted people, through broken-hearted people."

I wish you well and covet, for the Church, the development of new ministries to those caught up in the web of the cults, the occult, and secularism.

May God bless your in this righteous desire,

Jim