Six years ago I was called from my life of atheism and experienced a radical conversion to the Christian faith. My next entry I am going to focus mostly on the journey that took me from Evangelical Protestantism to the Catholic Church, what issues I came across, etc., but before I do that I thought I'd include a brief entry of my general experience in my former church:
When I converted to Christianity I joined the International Church of Christ denomination, a sect which had split from the mainline Church of Christ back in the 80s. It was a fairly typical evangelical/fundamentalist church in terms of its doctrine, with the one exception that they taught baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We believed in sola scriptura, believer's baptism, the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Trinity, etc., and we celebrated the Lord's Supper every Sunday.
In addition to meeting Sunday, we met every Wednesday evening for a "midweek" service. According to your age and life status everyone belonged to a particular ministry group that also met at least one other set time during the week for "Bible talk" or what others might simply call Bible study. Usually, however, you also met in smaller groups for "devo" or a devotional time at least one other time during the week. Then we ALSO had a night per week -- usually Friday -- that was dedicated to doing fun things as a group, like going to the movies or holding a BBQ. Date night was always Saturday night. So at a bare minimum we would get together 3 nights per week, but the standard was 4 to 6 nights per week.
It was that aspect that I think really separated the ICOC from most churches, Catholic or Protestant. The fellowship and expected level of involvement from each person was unlike anything I've seen, and that was a large part of their appeal. When you walked into one of their services, you were immediately surrounded by a sea of friendly faces who seemed genuinely interested in knowing you (and knowing you on a deeper level -- when someone, anyone, asked you how you were doing, the expected response wasn't "good" or "great"...they wanted to know how you were REALLY doing and were willing to listen if you weren't doing well). It wasn't the sort of place you could just walk in unnoticed and sit by yourself, then get up and leave after service ended. Everyone was noticed. Everyone was hugged or given hearty hellos. If they didn't get ya coming into service, they got ya going out! After church most hung around for 15, 30, even 45 minutes chatting and making their way around to everyone, and THEN we'd all end up going out to a spontaneous lunch together anyway!
I developed friendships there that, while we have all pretty much gone our separate ways as far as what church we attend, still remain to this day.
So essentially my first year or so in the church revolved completely around, well, church. It was an amazing time, made more amazing by the amount of zeal and passion almost all the members had for the Lord. Most people were what I would describe as truly on fire for God. He dominated our discussions and even our social times together were arranged around prayer. It was a tremendous atmosphere for a baby Christian like myself.
One of the immense appreciations I have from my time as an Evangelical was how I was taught to love the Scriptures. Like many Protestant churches, my church was an advocate of knowing the Bible inside and out and we were all encouraged to read it daily. I devoured the Scriptures; I couldn't get enough of them. It was a truly invaluable time for me. I spent so much time in the Word that I can still recall passages and their locations off the top of my head.
The other invaluable thing I took away from my particular Evangelical experience was my church's favorable (albeit selective) view of the early Christian teachings. They relied heavily on the writings and practices of the early Christians to support their doctrine of baptism for the forgiveness of sins, so I ended up delving into many of the Church Fathers myself.
I didn't know it then, in fact I would have shuddered at the thought, but by doing so I had begun my long walk on the road to Rome.
Year of the Priest, June 2009-2010
O Jesus, our eternal High Priest, give us truly holy priests who, inflamed with the fire of Your divine love,
seek nothing but Your greater glory and the salvation of our souls. Amen.
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