donut here, nice to make your acquaintance!

[donut]

Hello EU forum moderators & members, really nice to join you. I look forward to perusing the boards and learning a whole lot and maybe even chipping in my two cents every once and a while!

A little bit about myself; I am a born again Christian baptized in the Holy Spirit (ghost) both at the point of and subsequent to my salvation experience;) My first life altering experience with God took place back in '94 when I was 16...you math geniuses can figure out how old I am. Since that time I have had a consuming passion to know God and spread His Gospel.

My journey to believing in the salvation of all is long and glorious but suffice it to say that in one day I went from believing that God would eternally char most everybody that has ever been, is and will be (even doubted my fate at times though saved) to knowing He would redeem all from the power of sin and death! HALLELUAH WHAT A THOUGHT, JESUS FULL SALVATION WROUGHT!

I am currently pastoring a church in NW Ohio. The church is independent, conservative evangelical. Many of the members of my flock know that I am a Universalist. Oh, and my screen name is donut cause I love donuts, and well pretty much any other pastry but donuts are probably my fav:) Great on a Sunday morning with decaf:)) Anyway, look forward to dialoguing with you all! In Christ with you, donut!

[Melchizedek]

Welcome to the forum, donut!

[Cindy Skillman]

Welcome to the group, Donut! It's great to have you here

Blessings, Cindy

[sass]

Sweet, I'm in Medina! Welcome!

[WE ARE ALL BROTHERS]

Welcome to the board, Donut Hope you enjoy the conversation (I'd love to hear your two cents too!).

[Alex Smith]

Welcome Donut, thanks for introducing yourself. I delighted to hear you've become convinced of God's unlimited love & power, I look forward to your company on the forum

[donut]

Awww, thanks so much! Feelin the love already, thanks guys!

[Sherman]

Welcome donut! I look forward to getting to know you. You mentioned pastoring a church, an independent church. How's that going? How are the members of your church reacting to you embracing UR? Do you teach what you believe on UR openly? Did you plant the church? How old is it? Please do share more about yourself and your church.

[SLJ]

Welcome, Donut!

Sonia

[donut]

You mentioned pastoring a church, an independent church. How's that going? How are the members of your church reacting to you embracing UR? Do you teach what you believe on UR openly? Did you plant the church? How old is it? Please do share more about yourself and your church.

Hey, Sherman great to meet you and everyone else, sir. All good questions. Well, my wife and I moved to Lima, OH (as in the bean not Peru) back in 2001 after I transitioned out of the Corps. We are originally from Michigan. I ministered at the local homeless shelter here for over 9 years. It was about half way through my tenure ministering at the shelter that God revealed to me His plan to save all. Needless to say, it revolutionized my life, I felt like I had been saved all over again! It was hard to contain and well, I really didn't

It was at this time that I developed a good working relationship with a local church. I would often be called on to fill their pulpit when the pastor was away. Eventually the pastor went away permenantly (he didn't die, just went to another church )and we felt God calling us there so we responded. (So no, we did not plant. We will some day though, I believe it's in my "DNA"!) We've been pastoring this flock for nearly 2 years now. Things are going really well on most fronts. Many of the believers are soaking up God's Word like a sponge, which to a pastor is everything you could hope for.

As far as being open with UR I am sad to report I am not completely, at least not from the pulpit Please believe me, I struggled greatly with this at first because idealistically I felt that when I would eventually leave the homeless shelter I would be leaving one place that was UR resistant to a place that I could share freely; at least that was my hope before being offered the position at our church and I nearly turned down the job for that reason. But God wouldn't let me turn it down! As most weak-faithed individuals do just to be sure, I made a "deal" with God. That "deal" was, I would tell the church board what I believed concerning UR and if they still wanted me after that I would stay. Well I told them, and apart from expressing some concerns which were all inconsequential, and others admitting they had never even heard of it, we accepted.

The church is only about 5 years old. We have a good cross section of age groups. I am a young guy so I think I have been drawing a few of the younger ones in which is always healthy. Our people come from many different denominational backgrounds so as you could imagine we have a "bridge mix" of beliefs. Personally, I am a partial-preterist, Calvinistic (don't hate me ) Universalist, so I think as far as differences are concerned I fit right in. I've pushed on everyone here pretty significantly in regards to doctrine here of late and most have taken it in stride. So I am encouraged! I may not be able to share openly right now but a few things are for sure: 1. I am in a better position now then I was a few years go! 2. God is settin me up so I can preach this freely in His time! Hallelujah, excited for what God is doing!

[redhotmagma]

Hey Donut, welcome.

What part of Michigan are you from? I'm from metro detroit.

[donut]

Hey Donut, welcome. What part of Michigan are you from? I'm from metro detroit.

Cool! I was raised in Plymouth, (5 mile & Schoolcraft ) moved to Canton in my teens!

[redhotmagma]

I grew up in Plymouth, and live in Canton now!!

[fmichaeldw]

Hi Donut,

Welcome from afar! You will soon find this is a very international forum!

Michael in Barcelona

[Sherman]

Thanks for sharing more info donut. I'm glad things are going so well for you, your wife, and your church. It's awesome that you're able to serve and be open about your faith in Christ for the salvation of others, and it sounds like you're walking in wisdom and grace in not pushing it so as to make it a point of division. We who believe in UR should be the most gracious and loving of all believers for we can trust in God to make it ALL right ultimately and to bring reconciliation to All ultimately.

May our Father and Lord continue to bless you and yours wonderfully,
Blessings,
Sherman

[TheSpaghettiKid]

I grew up in Strongsville (Cleveland).

We got NW Ohio representin' - Medina (Cleveland) representin' - Canton Ohio representin' !!

OHIO RULES! LOL!!

I'm silly.

[Cindy Skillman]

We who believe in UR should be the most gracious and loving of all believers for we can trust in God to make it ALL right ultimately and to bring reconciliation to All ultimately.

Amen, Sherman! It's one of the bestest most wonderfulest things about UR. While it's had the effect of ramping up my desire to help the lost find their way home, it's turned the anxiety levels way down. If people don't agree (or even if they're downright disagreeable) it doesn't matter. They're going to be okay. Whew! What a relief.

[donut]

We who believe in UR should be the most gracious and loving of all believers for we can trust in God to make it ALL right ultimately and to bring reconciliation to All ultimately.Sherman

Amen to that, Sherman! Thanks for the kind words!

[Sherman]

Sadly, we who believe in Jesus to save others not just ourselves (UR) also often are vilified and excluded by other Christians - which can hurt terribly. So on one hand our faith in Christ moves us to be loving, kind, and understanding; on the other hand our pain from being rejected and excluded by other believers can move us to be unloving and unkind. So the more we trust in the Grace of God, the more we need to have grace towards others.