Considering changing denomination...again.

Jonaitis · Apr 1, 2019

ms.smith said:
I'm feeling drawn to my old Church, the Church I grew up in. I visited last Sunday and I already feel moving to that Church is the way to go. I don't know if I'm just being rash and rushing, or if the Holy Spirit is calling me to do this, or if it's just in the best interest of my family to do this.

How about attending your old church for a month or two, and if you feel that you should change, talk it over with the elders of that church and the clergy of your current church.

I hope you return to the Baptist church, friend, it may be the Holy Spirit drawing you.

ms.smith · Apr 1, 2019

bekkilyn said:
The important question is whether or not the particular church or denomination is helping to strengthen your relationship with Christ and feed the spiritual needs of you and your family. You are right that no denomination has a monopoly on "the truth" even though there are denominations out there that will insist that theirs is the only right way, when the reality is that it is *Christ* who is the way, the truth, and the life. If people from any particular denomination have to guilt or use fear, or building themselves up by putting others down, as a strategy to "encourage" you to remain, then what sort of message is that sending? God is not so small as many people can make him out to be.

I definitely need to pray about this, but this is important to me. I don't feel like my relationship with Christ is particularly strengthened where I am at. I felt so encouraged and strengthened in one week of Baptist church than I have in months where I'm at. I don't know if it's the "different", or if there truly is a difference.

ms.smith · Apr 1, 2019

Jonaitis said:
How about attending your old church for a month or two, and if you feel that you should change, talk it over with the elders of that church and the priests of your current church.

I hope you return to the Baptist church, friend, it may be the Holy Spirit drawing you.

I want to do this. I don't want to leave Presbytera high and dry with no one to teach Sunday School though, I'd feel a little bad about that. I feel like I made somewhat of a commitment and I should see it through until the end of the Sunday School year (ends in May). OTOH, I never signed up for this commitment level. I signed up to occasionally help out. I feel a little taken advantage of with the current arrangement.

Tutorman · Apr 1, 2019

Have you checked out the Orthodox forum here? There is some good stuff in there The Ancient Way - Eastern Orthodox

☦Marius☦ · Apr 1, 2019

Jonaitis said:
How about attending your old church for a month or two, and if you feel that you should change, talk it over with the elders of that church and the priests of your current church.

I hope you return to the Baptist church, friend, it may be the Holy Spirit drawing you.

This is not so much a counter to your point as much as advice to the OP in her struggle:

I have found that when the Holy Spirit is recommending something you 100% know it is the Holy Spirit. Every time there has been an Order from God in my life it has been clear enough for me to drop everything and move towards it.

Emotion is not like the Holy Spirit. Emotion is cloudy, confusing, and shifts a lot. Usually if there is confusion and lack of peace, (unless it is conviction, and even then it is clear) then it is emotion drawing you towards something and not the spirit.

Thats just my personal experience however.

Ttalkkugjil · Apr 1, 2019

☦Marius☦ said:
Feel free to recommend your denomination all you want.

I can recommend my own without taking swipes at someone else's.

Jonaitis · Apr 1, 2019

ms.smith said:
I want to do this. I don't want to leave Presbytera high and dry with no one to teach Sunday School though, I'd feel a little bad about that. I feel like I made somewhat of a commitment and I should see it through until the end of the Sunday School year (ends in May). OTOH, I never signed up for this commitment level. I signed up to occasionally help out. I feel a little taken advantage of with the current arrangement.

I understand, and will pray for you.

The Faceless · Apr 1, 2019

Ttalkkugjil said:
I can recommend my own without taking swipes at someone else's.

I do apologize for insinuating that your faith isn't the faith of Christ because of its relative newness in history. It wasn't appropriate here.

☦Marius☦ · Apr 1, 2019

Ttalkkugjil said:
I can recommend my own without taking swipes at someone else's.

Of course you can. But many of us are converts from the Church she is considering re-joining and have personal reasons for thinking it is not a great idea. Are we not allowed to voice these opinions friend?

ms.smith · Apr 1, 2019

☦Marius☦ said:
This is not so much a counter to your point as much as advice to the OP in her struggle:

I have found that when the Holy Spirit is recommending something you 100% know it is the Holy Spirit. Every time there has been an Order from God in my life it has been clear enough for me to drop everything and move towards it.

Emotion is not like the Holy Spirit. Emotion is cloudy, confusing, and shifts a lot. Usually if there is confusion and lack of peace, (unless it is conviction, and even then it is clear) then it is emotion drawing you towards something and not the spirit.

Thats just my personal experience however.

This being the case, I honestly feel very strongly I should go back to the Baptist church. I think it is my emotion and anxiety poking at me that maybe it's wrong, maybe I shouldn't, maybe I've moved around too much and I shouldn't, maybe I'm too rash in making decisions, maybe I'm missing something, maybe I'm making an emotional decision.

That is why I'm trying to work this out. I feel like I've made bad decisions in the past, maybe this is a bad decision again. Maybe it's all bad decisions.

Then I get even more frustrated because I don't want to invest another year or two years going to a church and then regret my decision.

Also, it's late. I need to pray about this and get some sleep. Probably won't sleep well though with all this going through my head. Guess I should pray about that too.

bekkilyn · Apr 1, 2019

☦Marius☦ said:
Was this done somewhere? Are you arguing that there are no churches with spiritual deficiencies?

How do I know you speak the truth? Do you have a monopoly on it?

All church organizations have spiritual deficiencies of various sorts, but Christ can still work through them just as he can work through imperfect human beings.

☦Marius☦ said:
Of course you can. But many of us are converts from the Church she is considering re-joining and have personal reasons for thinking it is not a great idea. Are we not allowed to voice these opinions friend?

Unless you converted from the particular Baptist church she grew up in, then you are not a convert from the church she is considering re-joining. Baptists in general believe in the autonomy of the local church and so one Baptist church may be very different than the Baptist church just down the road. I grew up Southern Baptist, which is a very large Baptist denomination (and there are Freewill Baptists, Primitive Baptists, various independent Baptist churches, among others) and even within just my one Baptist denomination, the local church has primary authority over how they run their church and no two Southern Baptist churches are going to be exactly the same even if they both are a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. Just because you were a Baptist of some sort is no indication that her Baptist church is the same as what yours was.

bekkilyn · Apr 1, 2019

ms.smith said:
I definitely need to pray about this, but this is important to me. I don't feel like my relationship with Christ is particularly strengthened where I am at. I felt so encouraged and strengthened in one week of Baptist church than I have in months where I'm at. I don't know if it's the "different", or if there truly is a difference.

Prayer is the most important, but regardless of where the Spirit ultimately leads you (Baptist, Orthodox, something else), you aren't likely to get an answer to your questions without exploring your options for a few weeks or months. God will be present for you wherever you are if you put your confidence in him.

Ttalkkugjil · Apr 1, 2019

☦Marius☦ said:
Of course you can. But many of us are converts from the Church she is considering re-joining and have personal reasons for thinking it is not a great idea. Are we not allowed to voice these opinions friend?

It's certainly fair and reasonable for you to give reasons why she should stay. Wisdom would suggest that you speak of the merits of your faith tradition without trouncing the faith traditions of others.

Ttalkkugjil · Apr 1, 2019

The Faceless said:
I do apologize for insinuating that your faith isn't the faith of Christ because of its relative newness in history. It wasn't appropriate here.

Apology accepted. That said, how relatively new is it. Some Baptists believe they can trace their faith tradition right back to New Testament times.

Albion · Apr 2, 2019

ms.smith said:
I feel like I must be doing something wrong to change so much.
I was raised Baptist. Big church, in church often. Sunday morning, afternoon and evening (sometimes after church events), Wednesday evenings too. I drifted away in later high school when I started driving myself. I spent my college years not in church and "trying out" a few other religions.
Towards the end of my college years I decided Catholicism was it. Went through RCIA and attended Catholic church for several years. My oldest two children were baptized Catholic. After the birth of my third, I discovered Orthodoxy and I've been attending Orthodox services for 18 months. I have met with the priest about becoming Orthodox about 9 months in, but have made no further moves on officially joining the Orthodox church. I do volunteer in Sunday School and have found myself teaching Sunday school about 1/3 of Sundays for PK-K students. I'm not entirely comfortable teaching Sunday school while not being an actual Orthodox Christian, but there was a need and I was willing to help. PK and K is mostly just crafts and coloring.
If you have made it this far, I've come to the heart of my issue. I'm feeling drawn to my old Church, the Church I grew up in. I visited last Sunday and I already feel moving to that Church is the way to go. I don't know if I'm just being rash and rushing, or if the Holy Spirit is calling me to do this, or if it's just in the best interest of my family to do this.
I just needed to let this out somewhere. I don't see my therapist again for a couple of weeks and getting things out usually helps me move through it. I'd appreciate any feedback or if anyone wants to talk through it with me. Thanks.

Hi, ms.smith.

WHY it is that you have felt the call to return to a church of your former allegiance might be worth a conversation, but the fact that you have changed denominations several times like you describe is nothing unusual. So please do not get down on yourself for that alone. It appears to be the case that only a minority of the Christians in this country have not changed denominations at one time or another, and I know that some of the most admired thinkers and scholars in history did the same thing.

A_Thinker · Apr 2, 2019

ms.smith said:
That is why I'm trying to work this out. I feel like I've made bad decisions in the past, maybe this is a bad decision again. Maybe it's all bad decisions.

The only thing that absolutely needs to remain constant in your life ... is your relationship with God.

Allow Him to lead you where He will. Searching for a more authentic fellowship with God is never a bad thing ...

ms.smith · Apr 5, 2019

I just wanted to come back to this thread and mention that I am feeling like everything I encounter in my life is pointing me back to my old Baptist church. I'm going to keep praying.

chevyontheriver · Apr 5, 2019

ms.smith said:
I feel like I must be doing something wrong to change so much.
I was raised Baptist. Big church, in church often. Sunday morning, afternoon and evening (sometimes after church events), Wednesday evenings too. I drifted away in later high school when I started driving myself. I spent my college years not in church and "trying out" a few other religions.
Towards the end of my college years I decided Catholicism was it. Went through RCIA and attended Catholic church for several years. My oldest two children were baptized Catholic. After the birth of my third, I discovered Orthodoxy and I've been attending Orthodox services for 18 months. I have met with the priest about becoming Orthodox about 9 months in, but have made no further moves on officially joining the Orthodox church. I do volunteer in Sunday School and have found myself teaching Sunday school about 1/3 of Sundays for PK-K students. I'm not entirely comfortable teaching Sunday school while not being an actual Orthodox Christian, but there was a need and I was willing to help. PK and K is mostly just crafts and coloring.
If you have made it this far, I've come to the heart of my issue. I'm feeling drawn to my old Church, the Church I grew up in. I visited last Sunday and I already feel moving to that Church is the way to go. I don't know if I'm just being rash and rushing, or if the Holy Spirit is calling me to do this, or if it's just in the best interest of my family to do this.
I just needed to let this out somewhere. I don't see my therapist again for a couple of weeks and getting things out usually helps me move through it. I'd appreciate any feedback or if anyone wants to talk through it with me. Thanks.

So what did you see in being Catholic that led you to join them? And what is it that dissatisfied you there that led you to investigate Orthodox churches? I think you have already covered in the rest of this thread your issues with Orthodoxy and why you are looking back to being Baptist. But you were Catholic for multiple years. What happened there?

ms.smith · Apr 5, 2019

I was attracted to the Catholic Church's strong stance on pro-life issues, their unchanging and very public positions on things that I felt were important. It was the first time that I had had any exposure to liturgical worship.

During those years I had kids. I was kind of busy with little kids. I had a lot of the same problems with Catholic church though with a lack of programs for kids. I tried several Catholic churches, trying to find one with nursery, or at least a cry room. TBH, I just didn't have the headspace to even think about it. I went to a different church to find one with a mom group, but it didn't work out.

I feel like I should be spending time with other believers. Neither the Catholic churches I've attended or the Orthodox leave much space for that beyond fellowship hour after Liturgy, which I spend hustling my kids, and have maybe a 5-minute conversation with someone else.

ms.smith · Apr 5, 2019

Maybe what I'm looking for is just a bigger church, I'm not sure. But that really isn't an option where I live that isn't Baptist or Pentecostal. Actually, there are a couple of non-denominational.

Considering changing denomination...again.

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