Why are you a member of WELS? What does this church body have that makes it unique from hundreds of others? In this series, you will read about why some choose to join WELS and what members treasure most about being WELS.
Author: Alicia Neumann
I wanted to know who God was, because I needed him more than ever . . . The church I was going to wasn’t focusing on Scripture . . . There was just a lot of liberal stuff going on . . . No one could explain anything to me . . . I want my family to go to a church where I am told ‘This is what the Bible says’ not ‘This is what I think.’ ”
For these and other reasons, Tammie Radikopf went searching for a new church. Previously a member at a Southern Baptist church, she was looking for a place where she could hear the Scriptures plainly taught—and she found Our Savior’s in Port Orange, Fla.
A time of questioning
“Church has just always been a part of my life,” says Tammie. “I grew up Southern Baptist. Everyone in my family is Southern Baptist, and my dad is a Southern Baptist pastor.” Tammie attended a Southern Baptist megachurch for 11 years, and worked there for almost six.
It wasn’t until her divorce in 1997 that things changed. “That shook my world a lot,” says Tammie. “For the first time, I wanted to know who God was because I needed him more than ever. And the church I was going to—even though it was a great, exciting, huge church—they weren’t focusing on Scripture.”
During this time of questioning, Tammie met Greg. Shortly before they were married, she began attending his church. “It was a Lutheran church, but it was not a WELS church,” she recalls. “And that church was even more far away from Scripture than the Southern Baptist church I was going to. There was just a lot of liberal stuff going on, and the pastor really wasn’t taking a stand on scriptural issues. I was very miserable there.”
After a lot of praying, Tammie and her family began looking for a new church. “Through a community event called Family Days, we saw this Lutheran church called Our Savior’s,” Tammie remembers. “Pastor Dobberstein talked to us and we went and visited. My husband said, ‘Maybe this is the church,’ but I wasn’t 100 percent sold right away. I’m kind of ashamed to admit I pulled a Gideon. I prayed, ‘You know, God, I think this is what you’re saying, but I don’t really like it. So I’m putting out the fleece. If this is what you want, you’ve got to give me a sign.’
That Sunday they visited Our Savior’s again. Tammie saw something in the bulletin that caught her eye—a scrapbooking group would be meeting later that week. Tammie was further intrigued by the woman organizing the event. She remembers telling her husband, “That sounds like the name of the woman I’ve been e-mailing for three years about scrapbooking. I wonder if it’s the same woman?” And it was!
But Tammie wasn’t convinced. “I thought, ‘No it’s just a coincidence,’ ” she says. “I told God, ‘No, I’m laying the fleece out again.’ ”
The next day, Tammie was driving to work and heard a mini-sermon on a local Christian radio station. “I’m listening to this pastor, and I’m loving it!” she remembers. “I’m thinking, ‘This guy knows his Bible! This is the church I want to go to! This is the church—God, are you listening to me?’ And at the end of the program, it said his name was Pastor Donn Dobberstein from Our Savior’s Lutheran Church!”
A time for answers
Refreshed by the radio sermon, Tammie and her family began attending Our Savior’s regularly. Dobberstein introduced them to WELS’ beliefs and practices through Bible study. Tammie says those classes changed her life. “I can remember crying through so many of them, because for the first time—and keep in mind I’ve been in church my entire life—things were making sense. I was understanding what everything meant.”
Soon Tammie was telling everyone about her church. Her husband’s family started attending and also became members. “We can’t imagine being anywhere else than Our Savior’s because of WELS’ stance on the Bible,” says Tammie. “WELS has had the same beliefs for over 150 years, so they don’t even sway with so many of today’s denominations that are trying to make it user-friendly.”
Although she was excited by WELS’ focus on Scripture, Tammie says that a few things took some getting used to. “For me, right away, I had a hard time with infant baptism,” she says. “I grew up believing that if you’re baptized as an infant, you’re not going to heaven. Period. Southern Baptists believe in the age of accountability, where you don’t get saved or baptized until you’re old enough to know what you’re doing—usually anywhere from 10 years old and up.”
But Tammie says Dobberstein helped her understand the Lutheran practice. “It was one of the Bible classes that I just cried like a baby. It makes so much more sense to me that we’re born totally depraved. We need salvation from the minute we’re born, not when we’re 10 years old and can admit we’re a sinner.”
Another big adjustment, for Tammie, was communion. “In the Southern Baptist church, communion is done in remembrance; it’s not for forgiveness. They believe it’s just a symbol; they don’t believe that it’s actually an extremely special sacrament. But it is for the forgiveness of sins. I’d never heard that word “is”—even though it was in the Bible, they’d brush right over that word. It was a revelation for me. Now I’m so excited on the Sundays we have communion. I get to be one with God again! It’s a lot more special to me now than it’s ever been.”
Tammie says that the only other thing that took some getting used to was the music. “In the beginning I didn’t like the music,” she recalls. “But now I get tears on Sunday morning during the music. I realized you don’t go to church to be entertained; you go to church to worship. And when you focus on these hymns and songs that have been sung for generations and generations, the words are so powerful. You can have your own little worship right there in your chair while you’re singing the songs.”
Tammie says that focus on the Scripture is why she loves WELS. “It’s not a country club—you’re there to learn about the Bible, to learn about God, and how to apply the Bible to your life,” she says. “We keep going back to Scripture, and the fact that Pastor Dobberstein and the Wisconsin Synod are not afraid to stand behind what the Bible says. And I’m new, but I’m sure WELS takes a lot of heat for it. But I just love my church, and I have never been happier in my life. I just feel like this is 100 percent where God wants us to be.”
Alicia Neumann is assistant editor of Forward in Christ.
