February, 1997

Dear Pastor,

Greetings from the Woodland Drive-In Church to all my partners in Christ. I am excited about continuing these letters to various churches in the Grand Rapids area, making our services available to you and your parishioners. I have no idea how many of you have ever mentioned us to people with whom you have come into contact, but the last two weeks a couple have attended our services whom I know came as a direct result of the recommendation from one of you. This is the first time I can confidently assert that someone has attended our services because of what you have said.

Bill and Diane (names changed) have an unusual situation, to say the least. According to her own words, Diane grew up in a situation of ritual Satanic abuse. Because of where she is right now emotionally and spiritually, she would not fit into any of our traditional church settings. She had been in contact with one of our local pastors, and he recommended she begin her life in the church with the Woodland Drive-In Church. For the past two weeks she and her husband have been attending our services.

I have no idea where this contact will lead. Diane has expressed a desire to learn about Christ, perhaps even to the point of baptism. If it comes to that point, I will instruct her in the Christian faith and, under the supervision of Fifth Reformed Church, baptize her—it will excite me a great deal to be able to do that. But perhaps she may start her Christian life with us and, after a period of time, seek an affiliation with one of your churches. That will excite me just as much.

You see, as I have been emphasizing over the past couple of years, we at Woodland are not first of all interested in building up some sort of membership list. We have never organized as a formal church, and we never intend to. We are here to serve people and to minister to those who, for whatever reason, are not in a situation that allows them to worship within the traditional church setting. And we rejoice when people who attend our services feel ready to leave us and join a traditional church.

We covet your prayers on our behalf.

Sincerely,
Verlyn D. Verbrugge