Tell me about your form of Christianity

I'm a non-denominational Christian, although the church I grew up in is affiliated with other non-denom churches in a way that loosely resembles a functional denomination of free churches. My church has a very close relationship with over a half-dozen other churches in the immediate area that don't have the exact same affiliation as us, although they are awfully similar in many ways. Our pastor meets with a group of five local pastors on an informal but regular basis, we combined our AWANA program with a congregational church over ten years ago, there's several things we do with a local Free church, and there's another congregational church that we've collaborated with since both our churches were at different locations and since the current pastor's dad was the pastor there. The main reason we have different names on our signs has to do with our historical lineage as congregations rather than doctrinal differences.

My church's lineage goes back to the middle of the 20th century when parts of suburban/rural Illinois were largely lacking in churches. So there was a guy who wasn't very long out of seminary that decided to get his start here. It started really small- not even really a house church- but the level of interest in Christianity at that time was greater than the level of opportunity to practice it at the time, so the young congregation grew and survived and became affiliated with IFCA pretty early on. The area became less rural and more strictly suburban, and it continues to be a pretty small church that will be there for the long term. Maybe it will get bigger than a couple hundred members, maybe not. There's still long-term building plans at this site that will take at least another ten years to complete. We'll see.

In the bigger picture of Christianity, it's an independent church that doesn't trace a direct lineage to anything European. I see this as an important part of America's developing Christian identity. Over many centuries, Western Europe and the Byzantine Christians and different types of African Christians all developed a unique Christian identity. American Christianity was initially a hodgepodge of differenttyoes of European Protestantism thrown together, and then waves of Catholic immigration and later a bit of the Orthodox brought them alongside us as well. But in the past half-century, there's been unprecedented growth in independent churches in America and around the world. This makes some sense, though- without being schismatic or hurtful to other forms of Protestantism, this is our way of figuring out exactly what the American identity is going to be. Independent churches might be a stepping-stone, or it might be the destination itself. Again, we'll see. It's a long process. It might be another half-century before we really start to get a clear picture of what American Christianity will look like long-term and how it will compare to any of the forms of European or African or Oriental Christianity.

I am a Presbyterian. The word refers to our form of church government. Each church is governed by elders gathered in what is called a session. This session is further governed by a local presbytery which, in turn is governed by a General Assembly. We believe in properly exercised church discipline, the baptism of infants and the primacy often Bible in all things.

Our confession of faith can be found here.

Here is the website for my church.

On the surface, if you visited my church, it would resemble a more conservative Baptist church, except of course that you might see us baptize an infant. The center of the service is the preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the Sacraments. We revere John Calvin and Martin Luther and consider them our theological forebears. While we do not agree in everything with our Lutheran brothers and sisters, consider them our closest relatives historically.

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Originally Posted by Episaw

Just a small correction. The Archbishop of Canturbury did not live at the end of the 6th century as the Anglican Church (Church of England) did not come into being until the 16th Century when King Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Church of England which he became the head of. The position of the Archbishop of Canturbury came into being after that event.

Just a small correction of the small correction. The Church in England is theoldest Christian church in the Gentile world (even five Roman Catholic councils affirmed that fact), probably dating from the first century and certainly before the first archbishop of Canterbury (Augustine). In the 16th Century this church that had already existed for over a millennium made a few changes--all churches have--that mainly amounted to culling out some superstitious practices and beliefs that had grown up in Western Christianity long after the Apostolic Age. In response, the Roman Catholic Church broke away from it, in 1570.

This has been a decent thread where people of every variety can share some description of their church, let's not screw it up by airing our dirty laundry and making it into another snipe fest.

Let's not...let's just not.

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I am a craddle catholic.
I have struggle through hell and fire but kept my faith in the RCC Church.
Even today, I struggle a lot with God, for the same reasons believers struggle.
I have gone around twice around the word physically.
10 times I have gone around the world mentally, phylosophically, theologically and otherwise. Sometimes I think that it would be better to be an atheist.
But as I go once more through Hindhuism, Boudhism, Xintois, confucionis, Sikhism, Islam, Animism and through all the Protestant Churches, I feel that I have nowhere better to go than the Catholic Church, who has it all.
When jesus said, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood, those same guys who had eaten the bread and fishes that Jesus gave them, then left Him. And Jesus asked the disciples: "Do you want to leave too?" and Peter said: "Where shall we do to? You only have words of eternal life!"
That is what I feel now. Till I die, I shall keep myslef here for I know of no other place better than here....

I am Anglican. I do believe the Anglican Communion is a continuation of the English church that has been around since early in the days of Christianity. There has always been tension between English and Roman expressions of the One Holy and Catholic faith. True the reasons for the break in the 16th century were not the best. But the conflict between England and Rome is a long one. That is my 2 cents anyway.

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Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen
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Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you
All things are passing, God alone never changes
Patient endurance attains all things,
Whoever has God wants for nothing,
God Alone Suffices -St Teresa of Avila

It was directed toward everyone, there is quite enough of this sort of thing in GT.

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MOD HAT...

This thread was started as a fellowship thread by the original poster asking members about what they believe and how they worship; therefore debating here is off topic.

I've done a cleanup removing all off topic posts. Please stay on topic.

Mark
Staff Supervisor

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Augsburg Confession Article XXIV; 1, 2.

Would you mind to say if I stayed off the line?
Not in my mind. But others may think so.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by Root of Jesse

<Edit>
The first Christian Church was founded by Christ and his apostles in Jerusalem,

true

and spread around the Mediterranean Basin.

yes, but not just there.

Since England was part of the Roman Empire,

There was no england at that time, but Britain was part of the Empire, yes.

Catholic Christianity spread there.

Well, Christianity did.

It even spread to Ireland, but it took an ex-slave Patrick to convert the country.

OK, but that was much later.

All of the British Isles was Catholic in the 600's after Gregory sent Augustine to convert the Saxons

He sent Augustine, possibly not realizing that Christians were already living in Britain. Three British bishops were present at the Council of Arles in the early 300s. When Augustine arrived, he was greeted by some of the Christians living nearby.

He is considered to be the first Archbishop of Canterbury, by the way, not because there were no Christians in Britain previously, but because there had been no diocese established in the city of Canterbury before this.

Even though Henry considered himself Catholic

Not only did Henry consider himself a Catholic, the Church of Rome did also and never declared him a heretic since he never repudiated any important doctrine.

eeven after his disobedience of the Pope, he remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, even after his excommunication from the Catholic Church by Pope Paul III in 1538.

Very good. Because this is a fellowship thread and not a debate thread, no rebuttal is needed. But this is my church and IMO it is the church that is the closest to the first Christian churches as well as the one that most nearly represents the mainroad of Christianity, not trending too far towards the extremes of either side. It is reformed but it retains all that did not need reforming during the Reformation.