A humble man...

Yesterday I promised to tell a story, so here it is.

When Dave and I were first married, and newly taking the Reformed faith seriously, we attended a wonderful church... Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church, pastored by Rev. Glen Knecht. At that time, Wallace was a member of the mainline United Presbyterian denomination, though many of her elders were conservative, Reformed folk. Dave and I heard somewhere that the UP had a case pending against a man named Kaseman, who had been admitted at a joint minister between a UP church and a United Church of Christ Church, and there were serious questions about his orthodoxy. This occurred as Dave and I were trying to decide whether to become members at Wallace.

Being the "take the bull by the horns" type that I am, we invited Glen and his lovely wife Betty to our little graduate-married-housing apartment for tea and cookies one evening. They graciously came, and sat on our furniture (all Early Garage-sale styling...)and listened to our concerns carefully.

"Have you heard about this Kaseman case?" I asked bluntly. "We are concerned about joining a church in this denomination when it doesn't seem to care if the Trinity or the virgin birth of Christ, or Christ's substitutionary atonement are affirmed by its pastors."

With a gentle, concerned manner, Pastor Knecht replied that he was aware of this grave situation, and could assure us that the elders at Wallace were watching very carefully and would act to protect the purity of the church to the best of their ability. If the denomination failed to affirm the basic doctrines of the faith, they would take appropriate action. With his gracious assurance, our fears were somewhat relieved, and we went ahead with membership at Wallace.

What Pastor Knecht didn't tell us that evening was that he had spent the previous year in his private study time, studying the person and work of Christ. He had arrived early to the last Presbytery meeting, apparently an unusual thing for him to do, and so was sitting right up front when Mr. Kaseman came forward to be examined. Glen told us later that something in his answers did not quite sound right, and so Glen began asking questions. To make a long story short, it was Glen and the elders of Wallace that had brought the charges to Presbytery, and on to general assembly.

Pastor Knecht could have answered us by saying, "Do I know about it?! I'm the one bringing the charges against him, you daft girl!" But he didn't. He answered our concerns quietly, carefully, and humbly. That is just a little picture of his gentleness and humility! What a blessing Glen has been to the church, for many years. And what a blessing he was to us!