About this time my first born son Marcus entered into the world. And about the same time I told the Mrs. that it was time to move on. I discovered a reformed baptist church in town and an Evangelical Free church. I sent letters to both churches but only the E-Free answered so shortly after junior was born we moved out of the Mennonite Church. We were there for about 3 years.
The EFree church was tiny-almost a mission church. There were two distinct groups (again). There were the few old timers and the younger crowd. The younger crowd held a Sunday Night meeting complete with lots of drums & guitars and stuff. They were good folks and the most of the were family. They just finished recording an album in Nashville so if you ever hear of a Christian music band named "Blushing Well" that's them.
The pastor was a gentle soul but the ministry was not working out very well. One day we came in and there was an announcement that the church was closing. Came as something of a surprise-especially with the younger group. Turns out only the older set were "members" and the members voted and it was shut down. Well the younger ones managed a deal with the denom to keep the building a while and they held morning and evening services. It was ok but our second had been born then and with church that small (8-12) there just wasn't much to it. So once again we moved on. We were there for about 3 years or so.
We visited the Reformed Baptist church. All I will say is that the people were polite but not overly friendly. The pastor never called or visited or even sent a letter saying "how are you". The sunday school classes were college level theology & history lessons. The sermons were very good. But it was just weird. The men's bible study wasn't a bible study it was always some book. The sunday school class was never a bible study it was always some curriculum. They were very smart when it came to bible/theology but something was missing. I began re-reading anabaptist works, particularly a guy named David Bercot. He wrote a book called Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up. He also has tape/CD recordings of teachings and other books and it sort of re-routed my thinking.
It got to where it was again to move on. Especially my wife was done with it. She was just not used to such an odd group. She did make friends with two ladies there. We were there for about 4 years.
We were invited to go to a church just up the road by-an American Baptist Church. We began home-schooling and one of our family friends, Steve & Robin Appenzellar, returned to that church. They invited my oldest son to Wed eve kid's club and I visited the Wed eve bible study. And it was bible study. The pastor was from Sri Lanka and was/is the most charming fellow.
Now there was a time I wouldn't have stepped foot into such a liberal church. Liberal is defined by me as: women pastors, women elders, affiliated with the NCC. But at this point I was just so tired and empty that anything was better than nothing and the people were nice so we started going there.
In all this I was also learning much through the internet Christian forums, particularly about the ancient churches-Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic especially. They have challenged my preconceived notions on some issues, particularly the sordid path of “Sola Scriptura”.
One interesting perspective some Eastern Orthodox folks told me once is that after the Great Schism the Roman Catholic Church began expanding doctrinal teachings from the original church creating a more scholastic and rational faith. When Luther & Co. began the reformation they were rebelling against the teachings of the RCC (indulgences, purgatory, papacy) that were not teachings prior to the Schism.
With the reformation came "Sola Scriptura" (the RCC says that everyone in the world is allowed to be infallible interpreting scripture-except the Pope
). With Sola Scriptura individuals have been put into the driving seat to interpret and apply scripture as they see fit. And so that opened the "Pandora's box" where whatever you want to understand (oh yeah, the "Holy Spirit" guides each one in their understanding-even when they contradict each other). So the creation of so many denoms comes from all the different interps. Then, the differences within the denoms [check out differences between a conservative and liberal Lutheran/Mennonite/Baptist/Presybterian church] are expanded again through each groups different understanding/interpretation.
Even the so-called "non-denomination" groups are in this same kind of world. Though there is no higher governing power structure, it's still a body that is understanding and interpreting scripture as it sees fit (Holy Spirit guiding of course) yet often it has the same issues of division within the body, and often these non-denoms end up splitting within themselves as they had split off someone else. Nope, I'm not catholic nor orthodox, but I see problems with the sola scriptura thing.
So anyhow, there’s the story up to this point.
The EFree church was tiny-almost a mission church. There were two distinct groups (again). There were the few old timers and the younger crowd. The younger crowd held a Sunday Night meeting complete with lots of drums & guitars and stuff. They were good folks and the most of the were family. They just finished recording an album in Nashville so if you ever hear of a Christian music band named "Blushing Well" that's them.
The pastor was a gentle soul but the ministry was not working out very well. One day we came in and there was an announcement that the church was closing. Came as something of a surprise-especially with the younger group. Turns out only the older set were "members" and the members voted and it was shut down. Well the younger ones managed a deal with the denom to keep the building a while and they held morning and evening services. It was ok but our second had been born then and with church that small (8-12) there just wasn't much to it. So once again we moved on. We were there for about 3 years or so.
We visited the Reformed Baptist church. All I will say is that the people were polite but not overly friendly. The pastor never called or visited or even sent a letter saying "how are you". The sunday school classes were college level theology & history lessons. The sermons were very good. But it was just weird. The men's bible study wasn't a bible study it was always some book. The sunday school class was never a bible study it was always some curriculum. They were very smart when it came to bible/theology but something was missing. I began re-reading anabaptist works, particularly a guy named David Bercot. He wrote a book called Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up. He also has tape/CD recordings of teachings and other books and it sort of re-routed my thinking.
It got to where it was again to move on. Especially my wife was done with it. She was just not used to such an odd group. She did make friends with two ladies there. We were there for about 4 years.
We were invited to go to a church just up the road by-an American Baptist Church. We began home-schooling and one of our family friends, Steve & Robin Appenzellar, returned to that church. They invited my oldest son to Wed eve kid's club and I visited the Wed eve bible study. And it was bible study. The pastor was from Sri Lanka and was/is the most charming fellow.
Now there was a time I wouldn't have stepped foot into such a liberal church. Liberal is defined by me as: women pastors, women elders, affiliated with the NCC. But at this point I was just so tired and empty that anything was better than nothing and the people were nice so we started going there.
In all this I was also learning much through the internet Christian forums, particularly about the ancient churches-Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic especially. They have challenged my preconceived notions on some issues, particularly the sordid path of “Sola Scriptura”.
One interesting perspective some Eastern Orthodox folks told me once is that after the Great Schism the Roman Catholic Church began expanding doctrinal teachings from the original church creating a more scholastic and rational faith. When Luther & Co. began the reformation they were rebelling against the teachings of the RCC (indulgences, purgatory, papacy) that were not teachings prior to the Schism.
With the reformation came "Sola Scriptura" (the RCC says that everyone in the world is allowed to be infallible interpreting scripture-except the Pope
). With Sola Scriptura individuals have been put into the driving seat to interpret and apply scripture as they see fit. And so that opened the "Pandora's box" where whatever you want to understand (oh yeah, the "Holy Spirit" guides each one in their understanding-even when they contradict each other). So the creation of so many denoms comes from all the different interps. Then, the differences within the denoms [check out differences between a conservative and liberal Lutheran/Mennonite/Baptist/Presybterian church] are expanded again through each groups different understanding/interpretation.Even the so-called "non-denomination" groups are in this same kind of world. Though there is no higher governing power structure, it's still a body that is understanding and interpreting scripture as it sees fit (Holy Spirit guiding of course) yet often it has the same issues of division within the body, and often these non-denoms end up splitting within themselves as they had split off someone else. Nope, I'm not catholic nor orthodox, but I see problems with the sola scriptura thing.
So anyhow, there’s the story up to this point.
