Someone visited my home last week. I am actually looking for a church to serve with. So I felt a response was in order since you knocked on my door first. The reason I would never consider your church is because you don't believe in the entire Bible, as with most Baptist churches. You deny the power of the Holy Spirit. You go a step further and even state in your statement of faith opposite of what is in the Bible about the Manifestations of the Holy Spirit. This is very disturbing to me. I served at a Baptist Church in NJ for 3 years after I was saved, and as a youth leader for 2. It was awesome. I was there 4-5 days a week serving and doing Bible studies and learned a lot. Then when the subject came up about the Manifestations of the Holy Spirit, there was denial, blasphemy, mockery, all things I felt were uncharacteristic of a true follower of Christ. So I decided to go right to the source. I asked the Holy Spirit if what is written in Corinthians is true for today, then to show me. I asked Him to reveal to me the Truth and I really wanted to know. I prayed and prayed on this! Then 2 weeks later, I was drawn to a new church in my town through a series of very supernatural encounters with God; amazing things. So I ended up taking my son there to a Thursday service. My 13 year old son was sick with a severe case of Spinal Stenosis and was a patient of CHOP. In the middle of this service, I leaned over to him and declared he would be healed tonight. I was filled with what I can only explain as electricity surging through my body, and later found out that I received the Holy Gift of Faith at that moment. Then the person doing the sermon asked if anyone would like prayer and my son went up. This person whom I've never met, laid hands on my son, anointed with oil, and in a blink of an eye he was instantly healed. This person was given the gift of healing as I watched Holy Spirit at work and prayed with such authority that I have never witnessed in my Baptist church. This person said in the name of Jesus, and by His stripes, you are healed. And my son was. Then a week later, my wife was healed in a more intense manner of her serious disease. I was so excited, I set up a meeting with my Pastor at my Baptist church to tell him. This is a 800 congregation church. I told him what happened. His response was that he didn't receive it and said he has no experience with that. He said that stuff wasn't for today; which I thought odd as it is in the Bible and pretty clear. I then knew that Baptists redefine this part of the Bible with their own opinion/agenda for whatever reason. I told the youth pastor and all of the leaders I served with what happened to my son and they responded with disgust, jealousy, mockery, doubt, and absolute grievance of the Holy Spirit. One even said it was from Satan. I then knew it was time to move on, and moved to PA where the Lord has allowed me to share my testimony to lead many to the Kingdom. (Show me the fruits of a person and you will know who they work for). It was a very surreal moment of how divided Christians are. This makes God sad. The Head Pastor of the NJ Baptist Church prayed over my son a year earlier, and nothing happened. And I realized later that he had no authority because he lacked the faith and wisdom and grieved the Holy Spirit. God is the same now as he was then. So for me to move backwards would be a mockery of God, when He has shown me so much for a reason. I prayed, and he answered. That is how great the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is we serve! Last year, my baptist friend took his wife to Assembly of God in Bethlehem, and she was healed of stage 4 cancer by the Holy Spirit. Another manifestation of healing. God spoke through me that afternoon to give him this message to my friend to take her that night. He received it, and a miraculous healing took place. A month later, this same Baptist(who used to mock me) began praying in tongues and now serves in the homeless ministry in Easton. Again, tongues is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the Bible many times, that your church refuses to acknowledge. No church should only focus on only the Manifestations of Holy Spirit, as the primary goal is always winning souls which is the ultimate healing. But any church that denies any part of the Bible or quenches the Holy Spirit is missing out because He is so willing to show us and loves us so much. Plus the last chapter in Mark is pretty clear-You will lay hands on the sick and they will recover(This is obviously the gift of healing), you will cast out demons in Jesus name(with no authority from Jesus, no on can do this), you drink poison and not be sick. I am paraphrasing, but how does anyone read that and read Corinthians, and still deny the power of the Holy Spirit and His manifestations? And then to say God is not the same today as yesterday? This is pride because I realize through the years how hard it is for many Baptists to admit they are wrong. This isn't to be confrontational, it's just the hard lined Truth of my story and a message to you. The Baptist churches are filled with Biblical knowledge, serve the community well, can recite many verses, and lead some to the kingdom; but at the end of the day, they don't believe in the entire Bible. Which I have a problem with after God has shown me the Truth after I asked Him. God Bless. Jim