I have only been a professing Christian since I was 11 years old. I accepted Christ as Savior at the Post Chapel at Fort Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone in a bilingual service in 1956. If I have learned anything over the years, it is that when God speaks, you ought to listen.

When God says, "Go start a church," there aren't a lot of options open but to start a church! One could easily say, "Why would you want to do that? We have many churches that aren't full now?" I thought the same thing, but that's not what I was told to do.

It is true that statistically more people come to Christ when a new church starts than without them. Our church, His House Community Church, celebrated our second year this past Sunday. When you start a church, there are many considerations and frustrations. It is difficult to find a location and there are not a lot of options open, but God always provides a way.

We were determined not to go into debt. Everywhere in the book of Acts, people were starting house churches, not building churches. We started out at Fayette Elementary School on Hood Avenue. You can imagine the glorious feeling of starting your first service there in the huge cafeteria with the joys of a new beginning, and yet the horror of seeing all that space to fill up and having only the few faithful pioneers staring back at you for inspiration. It reminded me of the recruiting poster, "the few, the proud, the Marines."

We then spent the year in the American Legion Log Cabin in Fayetteville. I'll never forget the Sunday we has a "gully washer" and the roof leaked right over the PA set and I knew at any minute the sermon was going to be truly electrifying. We then moved to our current location with PACE Christian School behind the Mask Tire Co. on Johnson Avenue in Fayetteville.

As I reminisce over those early days of our church it reminds me of "basic training" at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., in 1966.

In many ways it was a great experience, but you wouldn't want to go through it again. Yet there are many pastors whom God has called to do nothing but the gut wrenching "mission" of starting new churches.

His House Community Church is dedicated to reaching the 50 percent unchurched in our county of all races and all social classes. By the way guys, you don't have to wear a tie and ladies (perish the thought), you can even wear long pants.

For those who have made this third year beginning possible, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. God's people everywhere are certainly worth every ounce of the effort. To God be the glory!