The Years of Preparation
The greatest works of God take a long time"
Critical Illness and Recommitment to God
The crisis points in our lives shape our destinies and make us who we are. A defining moment in David's life came shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1942. Tired of being his mother's assistant for several years, David longed to 'see the world' and saw his chance when the United States joined World War 2.
He joined the U.S. Army but after just a few months of basic training, he fell sick with double pneumonia and a severely damaged heart. The doctors gave him little chance of survival. While in a near-comatose condition, David promised God that if he was healed, he would dedicate the remainder of his life to His full-time service.
Immediately, he experienced a miraculous recovery. Although the doctors acknowledged that David's healing was spectacular, they subsequently discovered that his heart was enlarged and leaky, and so discharged him from the army. They told him to stay in bed, and that if he did so, he might live a year or two.
But both God and David stayed true to their word, and David spent the next 52 years in God’s service.
Marriage, Children, and a Pastorate
In 1944, David met and married Jane Miller and together they had 4 children. In late 1948 he began building a small mission in Arizona and encouraged his largely white congregation to integrate with the Native and Mexican-American population of the community. The church board members were outraged, and in early 1951 he was abruptly forced to resign his pastorate.
This was a trying experience for David. He later recalled:
I started bringing Mexicans and Indians into my church in Arizona, and that's what finished me off! [The other members] said, "We don't want those ... dirty Indians in our church, in our nice new building you built for us!" That was the end!
By this time, I was already convinced of the ineffectiveness and unscripturalness of the church system, and its corrupt politics I had witnessed as a young pastor, together with the overwhelming hypocrisy of its leaders and members! This final act of cruel injustice and ingratitude, and their unconcern for the welfare of one of their own little pastors and his tiny young family made me … sick of the whole hypocritical church system.
An Ideological Split with "Churchianity"
During this time, David became even more convinced of the ineffectiveness of much of the organized, traditional "churchianity" of his day -- its emphasis on ceremonialism and lavish buildings, as well as the general lack of interest in doing what Jesus had actually said to do.
He knew that there were many sincere and dedicated Christians in all denominations, but he felt that they were hampered by a church system that was overly bureaucratic, bound by outdated methods, and no longer gave priority to its job of reaching the lost.
Some Christians think it's a sin not to go to church on Sunday, when there's no law in the entire Bible that says you have to go to church on Sunday, or that even hints that you have to go to church on Sunday!
God never once said to build church buildings! He never once said to establish Bible colleges and universities! He never once said to build great and costly cathedrals! He just said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!"
The True Church are the genuine Christian believers in God who follow Jesus -- the born-again, saved, Body of Christ -- not a building or a denomination or a religion!
Over the next several years, David worked as a high school teacher, a radio show promoter, and a District Attorney's assistant, but forever searching for that unique mission and calling in life that he knew God had for him.
