I have some personal questions for you:
Who or what introduced you to Christianity? If no one or thing introduced you, then what aspect of Christianity attracted you to the Church and God?
I was born into a Christian family so that was my introduction to it, from ages 4-12 I went to a Christian school that's run by my church. I would say I really didn't "make my faith my own" until I reached middle school and started looking at my faith as independent of my parents.
What made you conclude that you wanted to make a lifetime commitment to Christianity? Did you explore other religions at all?
Technically I first made the decision when I was four, I was riding in the car one night looking out the window and asked my mom if I can be a Christian. I don't recall my actual thought process but that's when it first happened. When I was 12, at a junior high camp, I really considered my decision deeply and wanted to make it again, though "more informed". Since I grew up in a Christian home, was surrounded by Christian friends, was plugged into a great youth group, etc etc, there really wasn't a time when I explored other religions.
Why did you choose your particular denomination? Why did you not choose other denominations?
I didn't necessarily choose mine, as my family had been a part of the CMA church for well over twenty years by the time I was born in 1987. I know my mom chose it because she was disgusted with the Southern Baptist Church she was raised in and all of the legalism, my dad chose it because he couldn't stand the AOG church his mom forced him to go to as a kid because of the hypocrisy.
Why did you believe that there was only one god? Wouldn't it be safer to believe that there were many gods, each god controlling one aspect of nature (the sun god, the sea god, the earth goddess, the moon goddess, the fertility goddess, etc)?
That was never something that was taught, going to a Christian school. From then on the best way to explain it is that I essentially viewed the different forms of polytheism as "primitive".
When you decided that you wanted to become a Christian, did you tell your relatives about your decision and commitment? How did they respond?
Yeah, my mom and dad were the ones that prayed with me.
If your parents are non-Christian, then do you share your faith with your parents or allow them to keep their own faith and way of life?
N/A
Do you invite your relatives and best buddies to church with you? And why do you do together in church? Are your relatives and friends interested in the Christian church as much as you are? Because of you, are they converted to Christianity as well?
Most of my relatives already go to church, albeit different churches. I haven't invited a friend to go to church in a long time either because they already go somewhere or because they're not interested or in a precarious place in their faith at the moment and disillusioned with church.
Do Christians have to attend church every Sunday? Can Christians start a small church group within their own homes where they and their families can worship and pray together?
Some say yes, some say no. I'm of the opinion that the purpose of church isn't just to instill good teaching, but it's mean to keep Christians
theologically accountable. A lot of non-denominational and fundamentalist Christians will argue that just because they're not a part of a local church community doesn't mean they're not a part of the church—which I say isn't the point.
I'm saying this from personal experience. My mother-in-law lives a completely isolated Christian existence and as a result has adopted a plethora of heretical beliefs, in addition she also carries an arrogant disposition towards church goers as though they were inferior for allowing someone to teach them. For a while I followed in her footsteps, and eventually saw how completely and utterly unhealthy this lifestyle was.
What community service or humanitarian projects do you do?
I've had the opportunity to work with at a couple of homeless shelters and food banks down in the Bay Area, and I've also been able to go to Mexico to build houses and Uganda to work with some orphan homes. Going to Uganda was profound for me, and I really want to do everything I can to stay involved with that ministry (Uganda Orphans Fund) but it's hard at this stage in my life. The best I can do at this point is advocate awareness and endorse projects like Charity:Water and Uganda Orphans Fund so others can get involved if they want to.
Do you consider yourself Jewish Christian or non-Jewish Christian?
If you're asking about my position towards Israel, I support them just as much as any other nation in the Near East but I don't favor them like many Evangelical's do. If you're asking about my ethnicity or if I practice "Messianic Judaism", no I'm not Jewish.
Do you tithe (that is, paying 10% of your income) to your church? If you cannot afford to pay 10% of your income in money, then do you offer 10% of your harvest or 10% of your merchandise to the church?
My wife and I give as much as we can afford to, but often times we consider our donations to charity our tithe. Part of it's because we feel like the work they do is more worthwhile, and part of it's because we're not in complete agreement with our churches use of funds. (I guess those reasons are more or less the same)
How do worships go? Do everybody sit in benches, called pews, and do the same thing at the same time? Or do everybody stand up and do different things while worshiping?
Nowadays people seem to do different things but overall people will stand and sing along with the worship team, some raise their hands, some sit in the pews and pray—some of the more "flamboyant" people wave flags around or stuff like that.
Do clergymen and -women live in your church, or do they have their own homes?
They all have their own homes, though there is a parsonage on the property but I think it's used to compensate interns (i.e. Jr. High youth leaders get free lodging in the parsonage instead of monetary compensation).
How old and what education level does one need in order to become a clergyman or -woman?
My old youth pastor just took over as the lead pastor and he hit the 40 mark last year I think, so I'm not so sure there's an age requirement. I imagine that the board requires a pastor to have their Masters of Divinity degree at least, in the 40+ years the church has been around none of the pastors have had less. I can't say for sure though...
Have you ever thought of becoming a clergyman or -woman or a monk or a nun?
For a long time I was considering going to Fuller Theological Seminary with the hopes of entering into some form of ministry. Never considered a monastic role though since that's not a very common thing in Protestantism.
How old were you when you were baptized in a church?
21.
Have you ever served as an altar server?
N/A.
Would a Confirmation for a Christian be comparable to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah for Jew?
I'm not very educated on the Jewish faith and the significances of some rituals. A confirmation/chrismation, as I understand it, is an acceptance into the church as having accomplished certain things in coming to faith in Christ, to put it roughly.
How big is your church? How many members does it have? How tall is the church? Does it have a parking lot to accommodate the modern luxury of cars? What rooms are there in your church, and who is in charge of what room? (For example, a sacristan would be in charge of a sacristy.)
How big is it in terms of physical size or the size of the congregation? The congregation, last I heard, had about 600 people that attended regularly. It's pretty big, but it's shrunk considerably over the last 10 years or so, in fact about 4-5 years ago a large number of people left the church over some stuff.
In terms of physical size it's pretty huge, the church has about 37 acres of land south of town which has about 18 buildings on it including a giant dome as the main sanctuary. There's also a preschool and K-8 school. All kinds of buildings from a commercial kitchen to a gymnasium and everything between—but everything except for 1-2 buildings is 25-40 years old.
How do you engage in proselytism, or do you rely on professional missionaries/evangelists to proselytize?
There's a number of ways our church engages in proselytizing. Since we're a Christian & Missionary Alliance church there's a pretty strong emphasis on missions and evangelism (though admittedly less so in recent years). Our local congregation has several long-term missionaries all over the world. We also engage regularly at the local level with the homeless shelter and related organizations. Our church also participates with all the other churches to spend one Sunday out of the year serving the city with maintenance and beautification projects.
Have you ever led people to Jesus just by being in the same room with a non-Christian?
I don't think so. I mean, I try to be available for people and to listen to their stories and their joy and their pain but I'm not certain what kind of an impact I'm actually having. I've had one friend tell me I had a role in his becoming a Christian, but I'm not sure how much I really had an effect.
How many non-Christians have you successfully converted?
I don't know, I'm not really sure to be honest. I have a few friends who I've invited to youth groups and church services and such, and they subsequently became Christians in the months and years that followed but I'm really not sure if I had any sort of influence in that.
Have you ever become jealous when one of your Christian friends has made more converts than you have?
I don't think any of us have ever kept a tally...
No, I have never witnessed a miracle. If I did, I may not have paid close attention or have forgotten it by now.
