After about 20 years of church-searching, my world-view of what Christianity is all about has definitely changed and continues to change. My faith has not changed. As a matter of fact, through it all, my faith has grown exponentially. I will attempt to give you a synopsis of these last few years. This article is a work in progress and may change occasionally as I remember points that need to be added.
I was saved at the age of 7 in a Freewill Baptist Church in the moutains of East Tennessee. I had heard about Jesus all my life at that point, but that night the preacher spoke and I don’t remember much now except that I didn’t want to go to Hell and I knew I was a sinner and if I didn’t ask Jesus into my heart, I would end up in Hell one day. So I went down and said whatever prayer he told me to say, with the most sincere heart I could have at age 7 and I believe that day God saved me and continued to teach me His ways over the years until finally at age 40 I am beginning to understand Him. In other words, at that point in my life I knew ABOUT Him, but over time I have come to KNOW HIM.
At age 10, we moved to another town and began attending an Independent Baptist Church. I can’t say that I saw much difference in these two churches except the first one had Foot Washing Services about once every 3 to 6 months. As a child, I thought that was really cool. All the ladies went into a room where the chairs were lined around the wall and there were a lot of tubs of water and the ladies would take turns putting their feet in the water and the other ladies would rotate around washing each ones feet. Strange thing is, I don’t remember any soap and I remember that no one took off their panty hose. You know, in the 70’s, everyone wore their hose to church as far as I can remember.
So anyway, back at the Independent Baptist Church. I just remember having to follow a lot of rules. Never ever would you wear pants to church. No dancing. No alcohol. TV was discouraged, the preacher didn’t have one at first but eventually his 5 kids begged hard enough until they did get one. Church services were very boring and bland, same songs every week. No one in the choir would smile, they looked so depressed. I took piano lessons at school and would play and sing sometimes, always very nervous but I loved to sing more than I loved to eat – and that’s a lot. I just realized in the last few years that I really can’t sing, but I still like to try.
After getting married, we moved around to 3 or 4 different churches. The church I came from would show up and ask where we were if we missed a service, so that didn’t go over too well with my new husband, who was a Christian, but did not grow up going to the church everytime the doors were open. From there, we started attending Southern Baptist Churches. They were less legalistic and usually big enough that we blended in and if we weren’t there, no one asked where we were the week before. In other words, we could “lay out” anytime we didn’t feel like going.
So finally after floating around for about 10 years we ended up at Mega Baptist Church (name changed to protect the innocent). While there, we found a couple of excellent teachers who were really teaching the Bible, not just Bible stories. It was finally all coming together for me. I heard for the first time that Jesus was God in the flesh; I had always heard He was God’s son, but I don’t think it had ever “dawned on me” that God was here in person (aka Jesus). The more we learned about the Bible, the more we began to notice things that were going on in the church that didn’t seem Biblical. Mostly to do with money, building projects, marketing services and techniques being purchased for tens of thousands of dollars. So we left Mega Baptist Church.
From there, we went to Big Baptist Church. The preaching was great, the people were friendly, we liked the music (some traditional, some modern). Problem – they were doing the same thing with a building program. Long story short, from there we moved on down the road t Independent Baptist Church. The pastor was/is wonderful. The teaching and doctrine are very sound. We were very disapointed though when we found out they were also using marketing techniques to get people to give to their building program, even to the point of having the kids color a picture of a piggy bank showing the money floating from the piggy to the church building. We couldn’t believe this was happening. We left and didn’t go to church anywhere for about a year.
We ended up back at Independent Baptist Church where I grew up. We went to visit and the pastor there was a Bible scholar, loved studying and his sermons really showed that he studied a lot; his wife was very friendly and we became close friends. After a good 18 months or so there, the pastor was basically being run over by the deacons and he decided to leave when he saw he was not getting anywhere and never would as long as these 2 men (brothers) were in charge (they considered it their church as they were the ones who started it 30 years before).
From there, we visited another IBC near our home where the pastor was a friend of the previous pastor from previous church. Again, being back in IBC, we are in a dress everytime you step into the church for anthing, people act totally different when they are away from the building. Anyway, a friend of ours was teaching a Bible study class there and because he didn’t believe that the KJV of the Bible was THE inspired version, the pastor told him he could not teach there anymore. They believe the translators were inspired and that no one can be saved with any other version of the Bible. So my question is, how did people get saved before 1611 when the translation took place? AND how do people get saved that don’t speak English?
So, for over a year we have been “churchless.” We attended a Missionary Baptist Church near our house one day, out of curiosity because it would be a shame to miss a good church right down the street, right??? Wow! The guy was yelling and screaming so bad he was wheezing between every 3 or 4 words. No kidding. I thought I was gonna have to do CPR right there and I wouldn’t have to go far because he was coming down the aisle towards us periodically. They all went up to pray and some lady started wailing and holding her hands in the air out of the blue. It was fairly chaotic. The whole time the preacher was “preaching,” there were men on the front praying loudly and the preacher kept telling them to “pray it down.” He said “if you have a preacher that has to use notes to preach you better get out of there.” The men in the front were praying for God to give him the words he needed. What happened to reading the Bible, I say. God is not the author of confusion.
Anyway, our current endeavor has led us to “Contemporary Church” which is totally unlike anything I thought I would be attending. We have been fairly critical of anything contemporary for several years because of our background. Usually contemporary means “anything goes.” And usually contemporary means charismatic,so when we found this church website we were very hesitant to try it out. The thing that roped us in was small groups that meet in homes. We like that kind of atmosphere, laid back, no getting dressed up and pretending to be something you’re not. So were we surprised after attending two services so far, that we just might fit in here. I’m not crazy about the contemporary music. Well, actually I like the music as long as the message reflects Christ and not some “generic god.” It’s the swaying and hand raising that makes me uncomfortable. Kinda like hugging and kissing. I don’t do much of that. I’m not a physical person. But the thing is, the people who were doing this had already introduced themselves to us and they were the nicest people you’d ever ask to meet. Several people surrounded us and wanted to know where we were from, what we do for a living, invited us to their small groups. Funny how God is teaching me that people worship in all different ways and it’s not my place to figure them out. I just need to find my place in this vast sea of believers, one where I can build relationships that matter, and one where I can serve and be a blessing to others. I think we’ll give it a try.
