Growthtrac Community

[danielle]

Has anyone switched from a denominational church to a non-denominational one? Or maybe vice versa? Perhaps you grew up with one background but then changed during adulthood.
If you did change, please describe the different experiences you've encountered w/ the switch.

[webacus]

Great topic.

[Short version of long story]

Was raised Catholic, attended church until my parents stopped dragging me every Sunday. I was unchurched up until ten years into my marriage. [Wife and I were both un-churched, not Christians.]

On the invitation of a friend, began attending a non-denom, Christian church. We both became Christians there.

We love that place; been there 17 years.

No "religious stuff", relevant services and messages, great ministries. We're living out the church described in Acts.
Awesome.

[Janine]

I had a Catholic background, too; in fact was a stauncher Catholic than many who "inherit" it, since my little lapsed Baptist mother had to promise she would raise us Catholic when she married my Easter-Christmas-Funeral-Wedding Catholic father.

Got nowhere in my search for actual connection to the Father God as a Catholic. Saw no actual "living-out" of Christianity in the Catholics around me. (I'm going on personal experience here, not condemning a whole religion!)

Asked God in my mid-teens to basically hit me over the head with a spiritual 2x4, to show me where to go & what to do to find out about Him. He sent me my husband.

By the time I was a young mom & had been married a couple of years, I finally got to a place within myself where I would openly study the Bible & reliable historical stuff, and where I saw a Christian faith sacrificially lived out, in my husband's congregation of the churches of Christ.

Became a Christian in 1983, believing promises and submitting/committing in baptism. Received a richer faith, I guess you might say, around 1989/1990.

Plenty of people in plenty of pews around the world have a greater allegiance to their denomination that to the Christ; there's no shortage of such in the churches of Christ. But, we strive to be just plain Christians.

A "denomination" is a weak, colorless, spindly little thing to belong to, when you can be hugged to the bosom of Jesus directly if you desire to be.

[Shumby]

Hi, everyone! First post. Here goes:

I was Catholic until 9 months after my marriage in l948. It was just ritual to me, and I didn’t understand much about it. I knew there was a Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that God made me to "know him, to love him, to serve him in this world, and to be happy with him forever in the next.” (Catechism answer to “Why did God make you?”).

Nine months into my marriage there was a gospel meeting at the Church of Christ where my husband and I attended. The preacher was my husband’s cousin. He explained to me how there was only one mediator between man and God: the man Jesus Christ. He also showed me in the Word where the mother of Jesus had other sons and daughters, so she could not have remained a virgin, like I had always believed. There were other things discussed, but these were the two proverbial straws that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. I eventually went forward to profess my belief that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and was water baptized. As the years moved on, I even taught the 2-3 yr. Olds, and once taught the Jr.High kids. There was one Baptist boy in the class, however, who came up with some questions I just did not know how to answer, and I really hated to be in that position.

About 1979 it hit me (it may not strike everyone like it did me – as to the meaning of the words, that is) but I was thinking about Acts 2:38 where it said “repent and be baptized,” and it occurred to me that I had never really repented – as far as my sins were concerned, that is. I had been added to the church, but I was beginning to doubt my salvation. I had just kept on doing the same ol’ sinful things I had always done, like drinking, dancing, cussin’, gossiping, lying. So I guess, in my mind, since I hadn’t repented, then my baptism was not valid, so I got baptized AGAIN. Then I truly turned my life over to the Lord, and truly felt like I was genuinely saved.

I had too many questions in my mind that never seemed to get answered, so I started looking elsewhere. I tried any number of avenues that I won’t go into, but nothing seemed to “fill” the void that was in my spirit. I was hungering and searching for something; just didn’t know what it was.

I know this is getting to be long, but please hang in there with me.

My husband was in a company that had convention vacations that we would go on every year, as long as he fulfilled his quota. At all the conventions there was an open bar. To make a long story short, my husband became an alcoholic. With the accompanying void in my life regarding spiritual things, a rift began to form. He eventually ceased attending the assemblies, and I checked out other congregations – different denominations. Along the way, I had been in some organizations that stressed seeking a good spiritual life. A friend in one of the organizations shared a little bit about her experience in the Holy Spirit, so I restudied some articles that I had saved re: the Holy Ghost. I finally got into a conversation with her, and she asked if I would like to go to a certain meeting where I might hear more about the Holy Spirit. I went and really was uplifted spiritually. My Mom was ill with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, ALS, so when there was a prayer line, I went forward and asked for prayer for her. While up there they asked me if I had received the Holy Ghost since I believed, and I said no. They asked me if I was saved, and I told them about my confessing Christ as the Son of God, and then being baptized in water. Then they prayed for me to receive the Holy Ghost. I realized that I should’ve spoken in tongues, but it just did not happen. I was too bound up with cofC tradition and their belief that tongues had ceased, so I wasn’t able to yield my vocal capabilities to the leading of the Holy Spirit. However, a month or so later, when I was travailing in prayer over a family situation it just seemed to bubble out of me – a fluent language. Praise God.

So then I had to find a fellowship that believed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in I Cor.12. I wound up driving 60 miles once a day to their meetings. It was a wonderful place to be: such freedom in worship, with the raising of hands, and sometimes praying with one accord in the Spirit (tongues) (I Cor.14:14-15). I eventually stopped attending the cofC, where I had been for so many years, after a Full Gospel (charismatic) fellowship was started in a town closer to home (12 mi.away). This was 20 years ago, and don’t think I would ever want to go anywhere else. I have truly found the kingdom of God which, according to scripture, is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

My husband resented the change in me, but shortly before his death in 1997 he told me that he had decided that he was not going to hold resentment against me any longer. He could perceive that I "had something." He just didn't know what it was, and he was one who didn't "talk about religion."

[Davep]

I was Catholic most of my life, went to Catholic School, Alter boy, etc. I found the training and education a great base. But after getting older, found the process of going to church on Sunday routine. After going to a "generic christian" church, I found the potential early on for real fellowship, and a place which me and my family could be involved, including my kids.

[Jim]

Shumby, WELCOME!

[Janine]

Shumby's neat. Y'all will like her.

Perhaps the best recommendation I can give about her is that she puts up with me as an Efriend. I can be quite hard to take. ???

Visit often, friend!

[BopeepTex.]

Mother is Catholic (non-practicing) and my dad was Baptist. However, I was raised Baptist by a Catholic mother.

My dad worked as a tool pusher with an oil company and was never home and my mother didn't drive at the time. The Catholic Church was across town and we had a little Baptist Church at the end of the street where I grew up. (Thank God for small miracles).

I do not attend a local Church and have not for a few years now. However, I do attend a service via the internet of a particular ministry I enjoy listening to.

I searched for years because something was missing. What I was being taught was not matching up to what was being revealed to me.

Have finally found the peace, and love spoken of in the Bible.

p.s. I don't believe in religion but in relationship.

[Wynne]

BopeepTex.:

How are your relationship needs met, when your church experience is on-line, dear?

As my friend is wont to say, who is "Jesus with skin on" to you?

[marzettejohnson]

I attended a Baptist church, then an AME (African Methodist Episcopal) most of my life. My grandfather was an AME preacher. The AME church is very political. I was taught that AMEs didn't believe in certain things such as speaking in tongues and prophets. I was also taught that people who "shouted" in church were faking, and that baptism by immersion was not really necessary. I thought serving the Lord meant that I attended all of the church meetings, that I participated in every dinner sale or bake sale. I also had no understanding at all of tithing.

Three years ago, my pastor allowed a woman to teach our bible study class who was not from the AME church. We also had a prophetess/evangelist to join our church, and who served on the ministerial staff. These two women taught and preached directly from the bible. They did not teach doctrines from a particular demonination. I learned more from them than I learned in my whole life. Their teachings prompted me to start reading my bible and to take an on line bible course. I found that what they was teaching was correct. I also found out that I was not really in the right standing with God.

As a result, I became born again and was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I eventually joined a non-demoninational church and was baptized.