Couple Wrestles through "Praying Jesus into Your Heart"

Hi, we are Peter and Cindy Van Dyk and we are here to share why we are back at

the Fort Wayne Church of Christ. Back for good!

About 8 years ago (for me) and 9 (for Cindy) when we lived in Fargo ND, we came to believe that Jesus was the son of God, died for our sins, and rose again to sit at the right hand of God

We prayed Jesus into our hearts and sometime later at a scheduled baptism, we were baptized.

We then tried to lead a good life--by working to eliminate sin from our life, worshipping each Sunday, studying the Bible in groups and in quiet times, and praying regularly.

We truly thought that we had been saved and that God had a prepared a place for us in heaven.

After moving to Fort Wayne we looked for a church. One where we could feel connected to a community of believers.

During that search we learned a lot, studied the bible, led bible studies, and did whatever we could to grow in our faith. But we just couldn’t seem to find a place where we could get connected to a body of believers.

Sometime in mid-2007, we found the FW Church of Christ through a connection with our two sons (a story for another time!).

For the first time since we had searched for the truth about Jesus, we were asked to study the Bible as a couple…not just in a group. So we sat down on a weekly basis to study with Dana and Gin.

What we came to understand is that it’s not what others tell you…but what God tells you. It’s written down in the Bible and when you study it, with someone who cares enough to spend the time with you, because of their love for you, your eyes are opened up.

However, it wasn’t easy. We struggled at times. We wanted to believe that the previous 4 years weren’t a mistake. We wanted to believe all the people who told us that praying Jesus into your heart and that baptism was “optional” were right.

However, we also wanted to be right with God. 100% right. That is what drove us to study, learn, and understand.

We had come a long way in changing our lives after our first baptism. But we realized that we were actually maybe 90% of the way there. What we wanted was to be right with God. 100% right with him.

So, as a result, we were baptized again on October 11^th, 2007. This time knowing God’s full plan for salvation. With fully repentant hearts, with a pledge of a good conscience, and an understanding of the importance of all that God requires of his disciples.

Then in early 2008, God “troubled the waters”. We felt turmoil. We felt that turmoil was driving us to do something different. At least I did. I thought it was driving me to better understand the huge gap between the number of churches that believe the doctrine of praying Jesus into your heart and the number that believe in what we do. I thought how could so many believe the prayer and so few believe what we do.

To a certain degree, we also felt God could use us at that kind of church. We thought we could help strengthen their doctrine—mostly around repentance and in seeing the importance of baptism.

So we moved to a different church. One where they believed in praying Jesus into your heart.

We worked hard at this church. We were involved in 24 hour Prayer Vigils. We met in people’s homes to pray for them and help them see the vision for the church. We helped move the church from a movie theatre to a new building. We led Small Groups.

I personally was on staff for about 4 months as a Director of Small Groups responsible for 18 Small Group Leaders and 140 people in Small Groups.

I started a class that would teach people about the importance of repentance and baptism, about a true heart change and that saying a prayer was not enough without these things.

During this time, I was still meeting weekly (or most weeks) with Tim. Studying and praying. I would argue that I agree that baptism was important…it’s just that I wouldn’t say it “saved”. Jesus saves I would say. Yes, you need to get baptized and we would have some very symantical discussions. Tim was very patient with me.

Around March of this year, I became very disillusioned with the church we were in. All I could see was very weak Christians. People with little or no commitment to change or to Christ. People who thought they were saved, but who didn’t feel they needed to do anything about it. I felt like I was fighting a losing battle!

I thought God had wanted us there to help strengthen and yet the more we fought, the more came at us. It was like fighting a forest fire with a garden hose.

At this point, I resigned as Director of Small Groups but let my Pastor know I would ensure that I would help as they looked for a new Small Groups leader.

At about the same time, I looked for something to read and I had about 2-3 books that I had on my shelf I hadn’t read yet. I chose one…or I think God chose it for me. Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

I started reading it…and I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in about 2 days. Everything in that book was what I was seeing in that church. I came to realize that anyone praying that prayer, if they weren’t careful, could be given a false sense of security and become complacent and think they were safe and not do anything else.

I then poured into the Bible and the more I studied, the more I saw the connection between faith and actions. James 2:22 talks about Abraham and how great his faith was. “his faith and actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did.”

Sometime in August, I prayed something I don’t usually pray. I didn’t want any more doubts on this issue. I wanted to be sure and clear and didn’t want Satan picking away at me anymore. So I prayed for “clear direction on the issue of baptism”. 2 hours later, as I was reading the paper, I saw an article about Baptism from the Sunman church of Christ based on Romans 6:1-3 and Acts 2:36-38

1) Baptism is into Christ Jesus

I realized then that evangelical churches ask you to “say a prayer” and that will complete your faith. The Church of Christ says, “repent and be baptized” and that will complete your faith. One is in the Bible and one isn’t. One is God inspired and one isn’t.

I realized that I couldn’t change the church and people from my position, it needed to be changed from the top down. I didn’t want to just leave, even though I knew now that my doctrine was secure. I felt God didn’t want to release me until I had talked to the pastor.

So I prayed, fasted and continued to study.

I emailed the pastor and we agreed to meet. Prior to our meeting, we actually stayed away from the church. We didn’t want to cause any turmoil with the church. We feel that while saying a prayer won’t save you, it’s a good start. And maybe some people who pray that will find their way to a deeper understanding of God’s desires. That’s what happened with us. So, if could happen to others there.

And while the pastor wasn’t receptive to the doctrine I presented, my prayer is that I planted a seed for the future.

We are excited to be back here. Where there is a true feeling of family. Where the doctrine is 100% from the Bible. Where there are true disciples who love God with all their hearts souls and minds.

We truly believe this is the best kept secret in FW and we just need to let people know. We’ve been spreading the word. We know 2011 will be an exciting year and we’re just so glad that you’ve accepted us back. Our prayer is that the Lord will bless all of us with workers for the harvest!

posted by Jerry Maday, Worcester, MA