Member Bobby Gilles (Attending Since 2004)

I grew up in an End Times, anti-trinity cult that was somewhat related to the Pentecostal holiness tradition.  Most of what I learned in worship services amounted to detailed predictions of the Last Days, built upon out-of-context passages in the prophets, Revelation, statements of Jesus and other parts of the Bible, along with declarations that our church had the “secret revelation” and would be raptured to Glory in 2004 (while nearly all Christendom stayed behind to worship the Beast).

So God has led me a long way.

It began right out of high school, when I became a disc jockey at a Christian radio station.  Within a year I was the Music Director.  The job put me in contact with many evangelical Christians, whom my church had shielded me from all my life.  I’d been taught that seminaries were “cemeteries,” that all Christian denominations were “the harlot daughters of the Great Whore of Revelation” (the Whore was the Catholic Church) and that the people called “Christians” actually did not display any fruits of the Spirit.

Little by little, I began to see that this wasn’t true.  It couldn’t be true.  Jesus said “By your fruits you will know them,” and the fruit I could see in the lives of these believers told me that they weren’t as I’d been led to believe.

For several years, I studied all the doctrines and prophecies my church taught, and used the Bible as a measuring stick.  I saw error after error, heresy after heresy.  It took a long time to admit some of these things to myself, and an even longer time to muster the courage to leave the community that I’d been a part of since infancy.

I came to Sojourn after a brief period at an evangelical church in Indiana.  The teaching at that church was biblical and the people were great, but it just wasn’t where God was calling me.  A friend there who had been to a couple Sojourn services said, “There’s this church off Bardstown Road that would be a great fit for you.  The way you talk about community, being part of a movement, the Arts … it’s everything these guys are doing.”

As a songwriter, I also enjoyed hearing that Sojourn created original music.  I didn’t want to just go somewhere for the sake of music though, so I read all I could find online about Sojourn, and I listened to five of Pastor Daniel’s sermons online before I ever came to Sojourn Gathered.

When I began attending, I didn’t know anyone in the community except for Daniel and Kristyn Wainright (Daniel and I worked together, and had talked about checking Sojourn out. We did so for the first time on the same Sunday).  I was introverted, and on top of that I had recently gotten divorced.

I craved and dreaded the opportunity to come to Sojourn Gathered each week.  I knew this was where God wanted me.  At the same time, I didn’t have friends here, and I felt hurt, angry and self-righteous over the circumstances of my divorce.  And when I looked across the faces of the strangers at Sojourn Gathered, I mostly saw people a few years younger than me.  And they were either childless or with kids a few years younger than mine.

Looking back, I can see how strongly God was working in me because if not for Him, I’d have quit coming after a week or two.  But He kept drawing me back to hear strong gospel messages and to engage in authentic, raw worship.

I participated in our message board quite a bit.  In fact, most of my early friends in Sojourn were people that I’d first connected with on the message board.  I also found out that a lot of people had no idea who I was, other than my board posts.  I eventually heard a rumor that “Bobby Gilles” was possibly a pseudonym for Daniel Montgomery, who had invented my name to participate in the board as a regular member rather than a pastor.

Gradually I proved to be a real guy.  I made friends, joined the only Indiana community group, and became a part of the songwriting community within Sojourn.

Over the last several years I can see how God has worked in my life, and also in the life of this community.  I remember in a Member Meeting, held to discuss the option to buy a building (rather than continue renting space), someone asked the pastors “How big do you think we will grow?”

Pastor Mike said, “We could easily hit 500 people.”  The audience buzzed.

Now we’re nearly quadruple that projected size, and growing.

I remember when our New Albany community group — the only one in Indiana — had dwindled down to four regular attendees in 2006.  We could have easily went our separate ways and assimilated into Louisville groups.  But after a few months God suddenly started adding people to our numbers.  Then we sent people to start a second group.  Now there are nearly 100 people in Indiana community groups, and we’re preparing to launch a New Albany campus early next year, as part of this Vision Campaign.

So what I’d heard most of my life was wrong.  Christ didn’t rapture His Church in 2004.  But that was the year He lifted me into the place — and people — that I call “home.”