November, 1996

Dear Pastor,

Greetings again to all my partners in Christ. As I have done before, I want to give you an insight into the type of people who attend the Woodland Drive-In Church—people who perhaps would not be attending church were it not for our ministry.

Do you know what agoraphobia is? Literally, it means “fear of the marketplace,” which is a fancy term for people who hate crowds. Not just dislike them, but people who actually have panic attacks if they are surrounded by other people. Tom is one such person. He managed to survive church attendance during his teenage years. But shortly after his marriage, he dropped out because of his intense fear of crowds. Twenty years later, somewhere, somehow, he heard of our ministry and began attending our services. For the first few times, he parked at the very fringes of the old Woodland Drive-In Theater—he didn’t even like to be near other cars!

But God’s Spirit began moving in him, and he gradually began to see his way to integrating more fully with our worshipers. To make a long story short, Tom is now one of our most active volunteers. He still hates crowds and will probably never attend a traditional church, but he finds at our church the space he needs to be able to worship God without feeling closed in by other people.

Perhaps you know of someone like Tom—someone who has dropped out of church because of agoraphobia. Don’t hesitate to recommend our ministry to that person; we’d love to put him or her in touch with Tom. As we have emphasized over and over, it’s not because we are trying to lure people away from other churches; rather, we are trying to minister to those for whom the traditional church, for whatever reason, is not the place where they at the present time feel comfortable worshiping our common Savior and Lord. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,
Verlyn D. Verbrugge