- Feb 5, 2002
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“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us…” (John 17:20–21). A desperate search for the remedy to denominationalism and Christian disunity led to the discovery of the complete prescription in the Catholic Church, which led to my encounter with the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and along with Him, all the desires of my soul.
For I Have Called You by Name
I was born on July 30, 1990, in Cheltenham, PA, but my mother died when I was 15 months old, so my dad and I moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, so that my grandmother, aunts and uncles could help raise me. Spiritually speaking, I was born and raised in the Stone-Campbell churches of Christ. The founder, Alexander Campbell, was a Presbyterian preacher in the mid-19th century who went into a deep study of the Scriptures and concluded that the Protestant Reformers had not gone far enough in their restoration of the first century Church. He rejected infant baptism, instrumental music in worship, use of formal creeds and catechisms across churches, the use of names for churches that are not found in the New Testament directly, and other such things as unbiblical. For Campbell and those who followed him, the New Testament is a group of documents from which the essential practices and teachings of the first-century Church can be distilled with enough applied reason and effort, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Generally, my church experience was happy and positive as a kid. On Sunday, October 2002, at 12 years old, I agreed to be baptized, and I was officially incorporated into Christ’s body, the Church. My first taste of Christian disunity happened a few months later, still in 2002, when the eldership at our church was dissolved due to a personality conflict, and the congregation split in two. Looking back, while the church conflict wasn’t pleasant for anyone (there were multiple shouting matches at congregational meetings), my being young and not at the center of the conflict meant that I didn’t have that much emotional hurt.
Continued below.
For I Have Called You by Name
I was born on July 30, 1990, in Cheltenham, PA, but my mother died when I was 15 months old, so my dad and I moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, so that my grandmother, aunts and uncles could help raise me. Spiritually speaking, I was born and raised in the Stone-Campbell churches of Christ. The founder, Alexander Campbell, was a Presbyterian preacher in the mid-19th century who went into a deep study of the Scriptures and concluded that the Protestant Reformers had not gone far enough in their restoration of the first century Church. He rejected infant baptism, instrumental music in worship, use of formal creeds and catechisms across churches, the use of names for churches that are not found in the New Testament directly, and other such things as unbiblical. For Campbell and those who followed him, the New Testament is a group of documents from which the essential practices and teachings of the first-century Church can be distilled with enough applied reason and effort, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Generally, my church experience was happy and positive as a kid. On Sunday, October 2002, at 12 years old, I agreed to be baptized, and I was officially incorporated into Christ’s body, the Church. My first taste of Christian disunity happened a few months later, still in 2002, when the eldership at our church was dissolved due to a personality conflict, and the congregation split in two. Looking back, while the church conflict wasn’t pleasant for anyone (there were multiple shouting matches at congregational meetings), my being young and not at the center of the conflict meant that I didn’t have that much emotional hurt.
Continued below.
From Sect to Sacrament - The Coming Home Network
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