Elgin and Batavia pastors join to share stories of faith

In September 2001, just a couple of weeks after the world watched with horror as the Twin Towers were attacked, the church family at Vineyard Church of Elgin experienced fresh horror on learning that its own tower of strength - its pastor - had been viciously attacked by a man with a knife.

On a quiet stretch of road at the edge of Elgin, Pastor Tom Severson had sat in his car with a homeless man after driving him to visit his brothers' gravesites. The man asked the pastor to pray for him, but as Severson complied, the man stabbed him in the neck.

They fought over the knife; Severson, bleeding profusely, managed to open the car door to take the struggle onto Gifford Road, where they might be seen. The attacker slammed a rock into the pastor's head, and Severson found it difficult to fight back effectively. Weak enough from blood loss, he scuffled with the man but didn't really want to hurt him, only scare him off.

That finally happened when a truck driver came by and the attacker ran into the woods, where he was later apprehended by police. But by then, Severson had had a further experience that would change his life forever.

During the attack, Severson never lost consciousness, he said, and concerns about whether he had enough life insurance for his wife, Jill, and their seven children flitted through his mind.

Then suddenly, "that flood of thoughts ended with a very real experience, albeit an internal experience," Severson said, "but I do clearly remember standing before the judgment seat of Christ and thinking, 'I've got a pitiful amount of love to bring him.'

"In heaven, love is the currency of value," he said. "I got the impression that if you had received Christ's love on earth and you had let it flow through you to others, you were rich in heaven.

"I started getting these memory flashbacks of starting to tell my teenage son that I loved him, but the words kept getting caught in my throat. I had a picture of my wife pouring out her heart to me but it going in one ear and out the other.

"I just felt this tremendous sense of lovelessness. I was doing good things, but I saw that even good things can be done with a lack of love and lack of the presence of God's spirit.

"I wanted another chance at this love thing. I felt like I'd get into heaven by the skin-of-my-teeth kind of thing, but I didn't feel like I had a basketful of the fruit of the Spirit, especially love, to give him."

Severson has written about his experience and how his life has changed since he got that second chance. A booklet titled "Who Holds the Knife" was produced by Given Word Publishers in 2002 and has just been rereleased by This Joy! Books of Libertyville.

"Miraculously, no main arteries were cut," the pastor writes. "A plastic surgeon said the knife's path was incredible, missing my jugular vein, my voice box and vocal cords as well as other critical places. The path the knife took was lined with mercy, going right through my neck and actually slipping between two vertebrae so that only one minor artery - was nicked."

Though Severson found himself to be a victim for the first time in his life, he also found that good can rise from evil. He said many blessings came from the tremendous support of the church family and pastoral community.

"The darkest experience doesn't have to be the final chapter," he said. "It can be the first chapter in a story that has many subsequent stories of God's grace, God's mercy and God's power breaking through."

On Sunday, Jan. 17, Severson will tell the whole story during the morning sermon at Vineyard. After the 10 a.m. service, the church will serve lunch, and This Joy! Books will host a book signing with the Seversons and Pat Bailey, a Batavia pastor and conference speaker whose memoir, "But This I Know: A Story of Love and Redemption," was also published recently.

The public is welcome to attend; the church located at 220 Division St., Elgin.

The point of it all: Get a good start on the new year with three teaching series at Elgin's Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

"With the changing culture in America today, more and more people are wondering, "What's the point of life?" "Why am I here?" and "Why is all this awful stuff happening to me?" said Jenny McAdams, director of Christian outreach. The Alpha Course is a place for those questions and many more."

Regardless of church background or belief, the acclaimed Alpha Course offers the opportunity for people to meet over a meal, watch a video and discuss a different topic on the basics of Christianity every week.

The Truth Project is a DVD-based curriculum designed by Focus on the Family that provides a fascinating romp through philosophy, ethics, theology, American history, science, law and more. The project was designed to help Christians develop a worldview that can bridge the gap between what the Bible teaches and how they actually live.

Alpha and The Truth Project begins Wednesday, Jan. 20, and Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University begins Monday, Jan. 25. Anyone can attend; call the church at (847) 697-4790 for more information.