Congresswoman Michele Bachmann Shares In Sunday Service

Congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann shares her testimony with the congregation of Jubilee Family Church in Oskaloosa Sunday morning

Oskaloosa, Iowa – With arms raised and voices singing out praise songs, the congregation at Jubilee Family Church welcomed presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to their service on Sunday January 1st, 2012.

The Church is just slightly smaller than most churches, but it’s nearly 100 member congregation is bucking the trend in many churches holding on to it’s congregation while many face declining attendance and financial hardships.

Pastor Bill Tvedt has personally been an outspoken advocate for the Congresswoman. He recently was part of a state wide tour, that included former state representative Danny Carroll, that reached out to fellow Christians around the state to rally around Bachmann.

“It’s been a great pleasure to talk with her and to be able just hear her world view, her Christian heritage, and just who she is as a person”, Tvedt said about the Congresswoman in his introduction.

Once Bachmann took to the pulpit, a small technical issue over the power in the microphone was quickly solved by a church technician Jeff Ridenour. It gave to what has been one of Bachmann’s strong points along the campaign trail of using object lessons to her advantage. “Turning on the power”, was followed by welcoming applause as she used the moment to illustrate, “tapping into the power source, there is no end to how far and wide his word will go”, as she turned the problem into a memorable moment.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is seen next to her husband Marcus at the Sunday, January 1 service.

“And take my poor words today Father, fill them with your spirit, enervate them, let your message come through these words this morning for your grace and for your glory”, was the words spoken by Bachmann during her opening prayer before the packed sanctuary.

“I wanted to be able to just share my testimony with you, and just some words of encouragement that I want to give you as well, because we serve a mighty God. We serve a big God. He is more powerful than any of us can imagine”.

Bachmann who was able to use and move around her Bible took the attendees on a trip around several versus and books of the Bible, turning eventually to Romans 3:23. “Because this scripture in Romans is essentially what we call the Constitution of our faith”.

Bachmann, who appeared at home behind the pulpit, moved on to her testimony where she shared with those about her birth place of Waterloo, Iowa and the hardships that helped shape her life after her parents divorced and they had moved to Minnesota.

Bachmann, who said her family came to Iowa in the 1850’s, talked about being a 7th generation Iowan where she tracked down the grave sites of her family who had called the community of Jericho, Iowa home.

“We lost virtually everything we had. Our house had to be sold. A lot of our things our mother had to put out, she sold her wedding gifts, pretty things out of the dining room, and I watched that. I remember going around to all the card tables set up in the garage and the driveway, these are the things I looked at for my whole life, our prized possessions and now they’re going on a tag sale for 25 cents and 50 cents.” Bachmann remembers about the time after her parents divorce.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is seen here greeting members of the congregation after the service on Sunday

Even though Bachmann says she went to church, “I didn’t have a living, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. I didn’t realize that”. Bachmann told the story that her friends prayed for her to have a closer relationship with God. “At one point on October 31st, 1972, I was with 3 other friends and we’d gone into my Lutheran church that night. It was close to midnight; we thought there was going to be a party in the church that night. We went in and the church doors were wide open. It was late at night, we walked down the isle. As we were walking down the isle, the Holy Spirit reached in and grabbed our hearts and literally pulled us onto the alter. And as 4 teenagers, I’m 16 years of age at that time, we knelt down in front of the alter and the Lord just convicted us of our sin.”

“And the Holy Spirit convicted me in my heart and the other friends that I was with of our sin. So for about an hour, we started pouring out our hearts, confessing our sins before the Lord at that alter rail. We had tears flowing down our face. We wept for we were sinful. Now I want to say this, I wasn’t a girl who had been involved in drinking, I hadn’t been involved in drugs or with boys. I hadn’t been out openly rebellious. It didn’t matter. I still was a sinner, because even though I didn’t have overt, what they call big bad sins, it doesn’t matter.”

“It cleansed me. It gave me a peace I had never had before in my heart. It was literally as though I felt like I had spent my whole life living in a closet, with the door shut, and literally he had opened the door up, and it’s kind of like if you’ve seen the movie Wizard of Oz, it starts out black and white, all of a sudden it’s technicolor. That’s what it seemed like. All of a sudden my spiritual eyes were open and I could see.”

“I wasn’t better than any other person, I was just free for the first time in my life. Free from the bondage of sin and I didn’t even recognize I had been in that bondage.”

Bachmann talks with the press following Sunday's service at Jubilee Family Church in Oskaloosa

Sharing a portion of a Bible story, “There’s a hero that I have in the Old Testament that I want to bring to your attention. He’s not one of the razzle dazzle heroes that you hear of, Abraham or Moses or David or one of the big guys you know in all the stories. But there’s one guy who really speaks to me.”

She starts to tell the story of Johnathon, “This is a story that doesn’t even get told very often, but I want to share this story with you for this reason. Johnathon recognized that this big holy God was to be trusted, and that’s what I want to leave you with today.”

I Samuel chapter 14, “and this is a battle. Seems like the whole Old Testament is filled with battles. How is it that nothing ever changes? We’ve all got battles ourselves.”

The story is based upon the premise of defeating a larger force. It features the Israelite Jonathan, who was the son of King Saul. Jonathan defeated the Philistines, who had the advantage in numbers and position, by overcoming those disadvantages with God’s help.

If the the most recent polls are any indication, she will need just such a miracle to pull off a victory in Iowa.

“All eyes are on Iowa. All eyes are on what’s taking place in the next 3 days”, Pastor Bill Tvedt said to his congregation after the Congresswoman had stepped down.

Tvedt highlighted the many Iowans still wondering who they will vote for. Polling indicates that nearly 40 percent of Iowan’s are still undecided with just a few days left to decide.

“Some people say, ‘Well Christians, ya know, well, maybe you shouldn’t even be involved’.” Tvedt stated then referring to an email he received from a friend. In this email, someone had written, “‘I don’t believe Christians should get involved in politics or government'”, with his friend replying, “‘Neither did Hitler, Mussolini, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Bin Laden, Hussein and the list goes on and on’.”

“It’s an absurdity to say that we should consider ourselves less politically active citizens.”

“Now I don’t endorse candidates on the behalf of our church, but I would consider it an insult someone would have to tell me who to vote for. And my job as a pastor is not to tell you who to vote for, or to endorse a particular candidate. My job is to teach you what scripture says about it, and how that you need to learn to choose a candidate for yourself”, Tvedt said in making sure people understood his position on elections and what he believes a ministers role in a church can be during the election cycle.