How I Got Here Part 3: Radiant Fellowship

 

It was January of 2004, and my time at the church in Milwaukee was finished. Tracy and I chose to be part of a new church in Waupaca, WI, called Radiant Fellowship. The first service of this new church without a building was held in the Cupola Room inside the Ramada Hotel. This church had already been meeting for a little while, but now it was located in this hotel. Upon my arrival, I was asked to lead worship alongside a guy playing the keyboard. I didn’t know this was going to be the case until I arrived about an hour before the service began—not exactly how I had planned my first service to go, considering I was the youth pastor.

Nonetheless, that evening our youth group met for the first time inside a person's home. They didn’t have any teens in the program but were kind enough to open their home to us. At that time, we did not have a home in Waupaca, and we commuted each Sunday to church. This was a four-hour round trip each week. I found it odd that the kids' pastor was always offered a hotel room while Tracy and I were not. Looking back, there were red flags right away, but we were determined to work through them.

Until we bought our house in May of that year, we drove up from Milwaukee in the early morning, attended church, and sometimes were invited out for lunch. After that, Tracy and I had no place to go. Around 1:00 p.m., when lunch was over, and with no invites to kick back for the afternoon at someone’s house, we would park my car in the Ramada parking lot and sit there until we took ourselves out to dinner around 5:00 p.m. We would take naps in the car, read, and more. This went on for about three or four months. The restaurants got to know us well because we had no home other than our upper duplex back in Milwaukee.

It wasn’t until mid-spring that my cousin caught wind of what we were doing and offered to let us use their lake cottage so we could come up on Saturday and drive home Sunday night, which gave us a place to be.

During this transition, with just a handful of teens, I went back to the HVAC factory where I had previously worked in sales. They could not offer me that same position, and all they had available was shipping and receiving, so I took it to occupy my time during the week. Nonetheless, with commuting each weekend, we racked up almost 6,000 miles in just five months. These were challenging times, but we made it work.

In May of 2004, Tracy and I closed on our first home. We were thrilled to move in and become a part of our community. Shortly after putting down roots, I went all in on ways to grow our youth group. In just a few months, we hosted our first dodgeball tournaments at the old armory in town, held Halo LAN parties at the church, and even squeezed in a couple of concerts. Things were going well, and the group that started with about five kids quickly grew to around 75 teens attending our events. We handed out youth group invites to kids walking home from the middle school, each one attached to a can of Mt. Dew. I upset some parents, but we did what we needed to do to get kids’ attention.

Fast forward to July, and that’s when things took a drastic turn regarding how this church was viewed in our city. While heading back into town after the 4th of July parade, we decided to take the scenic route to avoid traffic. On an S-turn, a teen decided to try and pass the car ahead of her. We were heading north, and she was heading south. We collided head-on at about 40-50 mph, causing me to drive my brand new Honda Element into a ditch, where my wife sustained some injuries, and I had burns on my arms from the airbags deploying. 

While standing outside the vehicle, a pastor we knew slowly drove by, looked at me, and kept driving. At that moment, I knew something was off. Tracy and I went to the ER, but that moment was forever etched in my memory, as it occurred before the police, ambulance, etc., arrived at the scene. More on that in another blog.

As time progressed and we went through winter, things continued to go fairly well with the youth program. Then, in the spring of 2005, the pastor I was serving under was nowhere to be found. His child called me late at night, saying her father was missing, and I tried calling him multiple times. Finally, I got through, and an explanation was given. It was the result of poor judgment, but I will spare the details. A few days later, I found myself once again going for a car ride so that everything could be told to me.

Following that, we had a very specific meeting with the leadership of Radiant Fellowship to discuss how we would move forward since the pastor, who was a district official with the Assemblies of God, was put on leave. It was unanimously decided that I would become the interim pastor. I had a bad taste in my mouth regarding this title and the situation because not even a year earlier, I had gone through a terrible storm. I was still not fully recovered from the trauma inflicted on Tracy and me, yet here we were again, not knowing things were about to escalate even more.

During my time as interim, the Assemblies of God district office agreed to support our church on a monthly basis for quite a while. I will forever be grateful for that support, which helped keep our church afloat.

One Sunday, I decided to give the bulletin a facelift. It just so happened to be the Sunday that the pastor on leave decided to visit. After looking at the bulletin, he pulled me aside and told me that just because I was the interim, it did not give me permission to make changes; that I was insubordinate, and more. These jabs directed at me were amplified by the kids’ pastor at the time, who took multiple shots at my character. This is the same guy who got to stay at a hotel on the weekends while Tracy and I had to camp out in the hotel parking lot on snowy Sunday afternoons in my Suzuki Swift (the equivalent of a Geo Metro). Many comments about my character were made to my face and behind my back by this kids’ pastor.

One Sunday, I spoke on the passage of scripture regarding “working out your salvation.” I played a video clip from "Saving Private Ryan," where Tom Hanks’ character tells Private Ryan to “earn it.” I translated that into living a life worthy of the call. However, that Monday, the pastor sent a letter to the church stating that I was theologically unsound and should in no way be the pastor of the church.

Fast forward a few weeks, and the Assemblies of God office decided to have this pastor step down altogether. Again, another letter went out to the congregation explaining what had taken place, stating, “Please be informed that the youth pastor of Radiant Fellowship has kicked me out of my own church.” Let me just say this: if I, as a youth pastor, could remove the pastor of the church, let it be known that I am the world’s most powerful youth pastor. It simply did not make sense, but a majority of the congregants at that time bought into the lie, and I was viewed as the scourge of the Assemblies of God. It was interesting because when I came on staff working under who I did, many friendships were formed. When everything came down, those same people ended up leaving including a few ministers that attended our church.

That summer, I was approached by the Superintendent of the Assemblies of God at Spencer Lake Christian Center. He asked me if I would consider becoming the pastor of Radiant Fellowship. Hurt, an emotional wreck, and questioning what I was doing, I replied to him, “Honestly, I think the whole idea of church as we know it can go to hell.” This superintendent was well aware of what I had gone through in the year and a half between Milwaukee and Waupaca. He had been a long-time friend of my family, thanks to my uncle Nat Olson, who was an evangelist. After I said that, he simply replied, “Why don’t you go home and pray about it?” Much grace was shown that day by this man of God. After Tracy and I discussed it for a bit, I decided to go for it. On August 5th of 2005, I received a letter from the Assemblies of God congratulating me on my appointment as the new pastor of Radiant Fellowship.

That Sunday, I showed up to church facing some very heated people in the parking lot. I entered the church with only eight people in attendance. A district-appointed official, who happened to be the same one who chaired the board meeting in Milwaukee where I was asked to leave, entered Radiant Fellowship late through the back door. I introduced him, and he walked up to the microphone, saying, “The Assemblies of God has appointed a new pastor for Radiant Fellowship. I want to introduce you to your new pastor, Bob Adams.” After he said that, he walked out the back door and left. Quite the welcoming service that a new pastor of a church would expect (note sarcasm). After church, Tracy and I went out for lunch to celebrate. The next day, I submitted the receipt for reimbursement. At 31 years old, after being a youth pastor for nine years, I was thrust into the position of being the lead pastor of a church on life support.

That very same Sunday, the kids’ pastor approached me in the sanctuary with his wife. They laid into me, saying I took the position for the money, etc. Keep in mind that at that time, I was making maybe $200 a week (give or take), so it is safe to say it was not for the pay. Nonetheless, a few weeks later, I had a missionary in who had been a friend of my wife’s family, and he told us, “I don’t know who your kids’ pastor is, but he has to go. It is evident from what he has said and done.” Shortly after that, I dismissed him, and we were now really down to bare bones. I am thankful for the leadership team at that time because I had a lady who led a Wednesday night study. She and her husband were very supportive. 

Since that day, I have been fighting for this church, and with Tracy by my side, we have seen some great things happen. There have been many mountaintops and many valleys. I have made great decisions, and I have made poor ones. Many people have come, and many people have gone, but in the words of the great Brennan Manning, “All is grace.”