An evangelical mutt finds a home

My denominational background as an evangelical Christian has been very eclectic. My mother came from a Nazarene upbringing while my father comes from a Baptist one, but neither of my parents were practicing Christians throughout my childhood. I guess you could say we were culturally Protestant. Had you asked them, my parents would have said that they were Christians who believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior, but we never read from the Bible, had family prayers, or belonged to a church.
Still, my maternal grandfather was a devout Nazarene, and I was baptized at a Nazarene church as an infant at his request. That I began attending the Nazarene Church when I made my personal conversion to Christianity at age 10 was either pure coincidence or divine providence; the aunt who preached the gospel to me was related to the family by marriage to one of my father’s brothers and had no earthly connection to my mother’s father. At the age of 12 I asked to be baptized again by the Nazarene Church, this time by immersion.
I switched to the Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.) at age 16, and soon made the decision to formally seek membership. That was the first denomination that I officially joined. Later, while living in Provo for the duration of my undergraduate education at Brigham Young University, I transferred my membership to the Assemblies of God. When my daughter was born in 2006, she was dedicated in the Assemblies of God in addition to having a blessing and naming ceremony in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I haven’t set foot in a single Assembly of God since leaving Provo in 2006, though my name has remained on the records. I attended a NewFrontiers church from 2008-2009, but never formally joined it.
Which brings me to where I am today. I blogged about my search for a church upon arriving in Illinois last August, wherein I eventually settled on attending a local Evangelical Covenant Church. I’ve read up quite a bit about the denomination since discovering it, and the more I hear, the more I like. I’ve had a membership application with the denomination pending for several months now.
The time has come. This weekend I am completing the new members course, and next month there will be a new member Sunday where we’ll be presented to the congregation. I am very excited about my new denominational home.
Coming soon: More about the Evangelical Covenant Church and what I like about it.
My Church Homes:
—————–
NOTE: I know that I have a lot of LDS readers. It may be helpful to keep in mind that while conversion, baptism, and local church membership are all things that typically follow closely together in Mormonism, they are entirely separate events for evangelical Christians.

Comments

An evangelical mutt finds a home — 12 Comments

  1. I probably told you this before, but the last church I regularly attended before joining the LDS church was an Evangelical Covenant church (and how I miss the great music).
    One of the interesting things about the denomination was that it takes no official stand on issues that have traditionally divided evangelicals, such as infant vs. believer baptism, speaking in tongues vs. not, creationism vs. theistic evolution, Calvinism vs. Arminianism, and so on. So there’d be people in the congregation that were on both sides of those issues, and more. For example, some parents chose to have their infants baptized, while others waited until they felt their children were old enough to decide for themselves. Somehow people managed to get along fine.
    Although I attended the church for about six years, I never did join, because of some issues I had with evangelical theology that became a factor in my studying LDS beliefs. But I do have mostly good memories of the church, and if someone were asking me what Protestant church to join (not that I know why someone would ask me such a thing), it’s one denomination I would suggest looking into.
  2. By formally joining ECC, will you continue to have your name on the records of the Assemblies of God, as well? Do evangelical churches have any issues with you being a formal member of competing denominations?
  3. The pastor told us that we should send notifications to any churches that have us on the membership rolls and let them know that we’ve changed churches. They won’t really care if you don’t, but it helps keep denominations and local churches from inflating their membership numbers.
    Does the LDS church ask converts from traditional Christian denominations to notify their old churches and have their names removed from the rolls? I didn’t think it did.
  4. No, the LDS church doesn’t, to my knowledge, ask or require converts to formally cut ties with old churches. Which, come to think of it, probably means that my parents and three of my brothers are still considered Roman Catholics. Hm.
  5. Awesome Jack.
    Please let us know the date of your “presentation” to the Church. If I am not happily otherwise occupied in neighboring states, I will attend.
  8. I’m very happy for you, Jack. I think you’ve picked a good church home. And what no. 5 said.
  9. I’m very flattered that you all want to come to New Member Sunday when we have it. I’m told that they’ll try to have the new members participate in the service on that day (giving testimonies, reading scriptures, prayers, etc.) as part of introducing them to the congregation.
    My pastor said that New Member Sunday will likely be in May and could be as late as June. I’ll keep you posted. :)
  10. Hmmm. I could drop by on my way to visit a friend in Dekalb.
    Now… what could the Mormon contingent of your online fanclub do to sufficiently embarrass you, but not actually get you into trouble…. ;-)
  12. My wife and I would totally come, except that my sister is getting married the day before, and we’re going to be busy with family for the whole week surrounding it.
    Very excited for you, though!
Categories:

Related Post:



0 коментарі:

Post a Comment

ClobberBlog | Mormonism, Evangelical Christianity