David begins the Fellowship, he continues to receive revelation and he moves forward with the Lord’s work.
I knew the Lord has called me to a ministry, but I was unsure where to begin. I started by praying on a name, and was told to call the work “the Church of Jesus Christ in Christian Fellowship.” The name came to me by inspiration while driving home from work one day. It was later confirmed by revelation from the Lord.
Not really knowing what to do, I bought a web domain and began filling a website with content, my personal revelations, and organizational direction for the Fellowship. I was contacted almost immediately by a variety of people from all over the world. I truly believed the Lord was going to build up this work based both on the amount of interest the movement was receiving and the revelations the Lord was providing me. It was an outpouring of the Spirit as I had never before experienced!
Fully aware it was eventually going to happen, someone from my local Latter-day Saint ward turned me in for “apostasy” and my bishop invited me to his office for a visit.
We talked about what he called the concerns I had. I explained that I didn’t have any concerns, the LdS Church (as it was known at that time) had chosen to continue on a path the Lord didn’t wish for me or my family to follow. He was every concerned that I would ordain women to the priesthood, he dwelled on this topic for quite some time. I wouldn’t reassure him that this wouldn’t happen as this wasn’t my doing, I was merely following the Lord. At the end, he let me know he’d be turning me in to the Stake President.
I got a call a few days later from someone setting up an appointment to talk to the Stake President. Due to the secretive nature of his denomination he asked that I not record or reveal the conversations we had. Out of respect for his denomination, I have kept their secrets as best I can concerning meetings, while attempting to accurately explain what happened. It is enough to say that these meetings led to a full trial and excommunication.
I’ll merely say I used Moroni 7 as my defense. After a series of questions I was accused of not obeying my Stake President’s command to bring my family to church and of worshiping Heavenly Mother (which I denied).
After this, I was asked to step out into the hall so they could speak freely. The Lord advised me to leave, but I stayed. I wanted to hear from them that I was excommunicated. After an extremely long wait, by which time my wife had also reached out to me asking me to return home, they finally brought me back in. I was told they decided unanimously to excommunicate me. They then attempted to go over next steps. At this point however, I apologized but let them know it was time for me to leave. I didn’t feel this meeting truly reflected the church I had spent the overwhelming majority of my life in.
I asked those there to please share the good news of the Fellowship to those that retained a testimony of the Book of Mormon but not of their denomination. I spoke again as to the important of the lives of teens debating, attempting, or worse committing suicide and emplored them to pray for and take care of them. Their looks of confusinion and discust told me they couldn’t understand why this was important to me or the Lord. I also encouraged them to read the first chapter of Alma in the Book of Mormon, to avoid priestcraft and care for those in need, including the LGBTQ community.
After leaving, I was asked by a number of family members, friends, and those sympathetic to the Fellowship to have the Stake President seek guidance from the President of their church. This I did, and was called back later to the Stake President’s office. I was informed of a letter I was not permitted to see that stated President Monson agreed that I should not remain a member of their denomination. With all ties completely severed, I was then free solely represent the Lord in the Church of Jesus Christ in Christian Fellowship without worrying about how to dusky represent the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.