Continuing my life journey and how I was led, this part deals with our arrival, home, life, work, and church experiences in post-Communist Czech Republic. It is another part of an upcoming book or website section entitled Divinely Led.
Part 4: Back to Europe
Church Experiences
About a year after arriving in the Czech Republic, the church we had been a part of almost 25 years and worked for nearly 20 years had undergone a major doctrinal upheaval. What used to be seen as commanded by God and non-negotiable now became optional. Long-held beliefs for which people had sacrificed in major ways were turned on their head after the new leadership was challenged by an outside source to examine them in a new light.
This understandably resulted in a lot of confusion, trauma, anger at having been misled and deceived, grief, as well as spiritual crises in people’s lives. Some happily adopted the new direction, but many left, including ministers, who as a result lost their salaries. Multiple groups formed to continue with the original teachings. Some of those who left joined more orthodox churches to get away from the confusion and controversies. And some just gave up on church and maybe even on God. Overall, in the name of preaching the truth, love and pastoral care were neglected as those who didn’t embrace the new teachings were subtly or not so subtly criticized and made feel bad for “not seeing it”.
Being a long way away from the church’s Headquarters, we watched everything from afar, and thus escaped the brunt of the chaos. Still, all local churches were understandably affected and we were too not left unscathed. The small church we attended every three weeks or so in Vienna because of the distance was reeling. Many left, some who were vocal in their disagreement with the new teachings were excommunicated. The minister was going to be transferred back to the US, but this changed in the last minute – after he and his wife disposed of all the household items they didn’t want to move overseas. Drama, trauma, chaos and confusion reigned supreme.
Looking back, again I can see how we were led to leave the US just at the right time – while everything was stable. It would have been much harder to ride out all the turmoil at the epicenter of this unprecedented spiritual earthquake. Even so it was challenging, but much more manageable. We were still privy to the official doctrinal explanations in church literature which were not always loving and subtly undermined and ridiculed those who were resistant, hesitant or slow to accept the new interpretations. Sometimes Alex and I would see things differently – he was comfortable with the new direction and trusted the church teachings, whereas I didn’t see it quite as quickly – but have since come to embrace much of it as well.
For some time we continued going to the church in Vienna, though only about once a month because of the distance. Those weeks that we didn’t go, we would meet with a Czech lady, who too had returned from the US and settled in Ceske Budejovice, and listened to taped sermons. She too was struggling, as was her husband who was living separate from her, but not far.
As time went on, something interesting happened. Driving to Jindrichuv Hradec to teach several times a week, we would pass a health food shop on the main street. One day, on the way home we decided to stop and go in. At that time in the Czech Republic, health food stores were rare and the traditional Czech diet was not particularly healthy. But slowly, this was changing.
We walked into the store and noticed religious pamphlets available for the taking. We talked to the owner, a friendly man by the name of Ben, and learned that the family was Seventh Day Adventist. They had a home church next door to the store where a small group was meeting on Saturday mornings.
We would stop at the store every so often and besides buying food, we would exchange a few words. We were somewhat familiar with the Adventists in that some of their beliefs parallelled ours, especially the seventh-day Sabbath. After some time, the couple invited us to a special combined church function in the neighboring town and we accepted.
It was a new, interesting, but positive experience. Some of the people we met that day, I am still in periodic contact with after all these years. After this we began to meet with Ben and his wife Jana, their three daughters and a few others in their home church. Since Alex didn’t understand the Czech sermons, he was allowed to go upstairs and do his own reading and then joined the group for lunch.
Unbeknown to the group. we were both working through our own beliefs and faith issues. I found the Adventist experience refreshing and balanced, especially the member-minister relationships. In our previous church these were very formal and official – the ministers were put on a pedestal. In the Adventist church they were right there with the brethren, which very much appealed to me.
It wasn’t easy and took a long time before we each found our own spiritual ground and regained equilibrium. The Adventists gave us a spiritual place of refuge – a place of peace and escape from controversy. But when I officially became a member, Alex was very upset – even though we had talked about it ahead of time. So our spiritual lives for some years were a bit of a roller coaster. But we enjoyed Ben and Jana’s company, and sometimes stayed after lunch just to chat in their sunny backyard or take a walk with them. Other times, the whole group would take a nature walk after lunch, which was always enjoyable.
As time went on, Alex started feeling the need to return to Australia and live in an English-speaking environment. This sounded good, but the question was where in Australia? His parents and brothers with their families were in the state of Victoria and mine were in Queensland – two states to the north. Gradually, Alex begun to appreciate the Adventists for their values and teachings and decided to apply to attend their ministerial program at Avondale College in New South Wales. Ben could see his potential and recommended him, and he was accepted.
For a time, it felt like God’s leading. We would be back in a church community, but away from controversy, which would be healing. We would also be working toward a goal. Being a private school, the tuition costs were high, but we felt it was worth it. But as time went on, doubts started to emerge. Suddenly this no longer seemed like the path to go. So we were back to the drawing board.
During our short stay in Liberec, we never attended the local Adventist church. Instead, we came in contact with a missionary couple who were of a very conservative Reformed leaning. For a time we fellowshipped with them, but soon, especially upon our return to Australia, found them too radical in their beliefs and couldn’t accept their total depravity / predestination understanding. We were still searching for our own footing and our spiritual journey continued to unfold long after we left the Czech Republic as further chapters will show. We were yet to have many church experiences and other unexpected developments on our individual faith journeys.
For other information on divine leading, see Spirit Helpers and Guides
Here is a short reflection on being divinely led.