Hello
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 5:57 pm
Hello all,
I have posted a few times on some of the threads, but haven't introduced myself yet. Up until about a year or so ago, I had been a lifelong attendee/member (I guess you're not officially a member until you've been baptized, which I was as an early teen) of the church of Christ. Please notice that the lower case "c" in "church" is no mistake; I specifically came from the non-instrumental, non-institutional, aka "anti" coC, and we were always careful to make sure to keep that first "c" lower case so that others would know that we were not just Another Christian Denomination. We were the "no-bus, no-gym, no-playground, no-kitchen, no-fellowship-hall, no-preschool, no-instruments, no-evening-service-Lord's-supper, but Sunday-class-is-okay, and so-are-multiple-cups" variety coC. Oh and of course, since we got all these things right, we were the One True Church™.
I began to question and challenge the dogmatic coC doctrines about 8-9 years ago. I was active teaching, preaching, song-leading, and doing lots of other activities in the "worship service." As time went on, more and more of these doctrines seemed to be based on church traditions and man-made beliefs, rather than on the Bible (which I typically referred to as "the word of God" rather than "Bible").
Suffice it to say, I pretty well studied myself out of the coC. During much of this time, I challenged many of the coC teachings with preachers, elders, and others. I could feel the hostility toward me rising, felt so beat down every Sunday and Wednesday, that I threw in the towel and began going to a progressive coC, and taking a backseat to service and leadership roles within the church.
Little did I know that I was also on the verge of giving up my faith completely (not losing - but giving it up), yet that's where I am now. There's obviously loads that could be unpacked behind what I have shared here, but that's for some other time.
So that's a short synopsis of me. Not even sure what I hope to get from or contribute to this forum, but I suppose it's helpful to see the experiences of others, and share mine as well. These experiences can be filled with emotional turmoil, pain, hurt, and quite frankly a lot of very unloving behaviors by the most die-hard Christians, and often close family members.
I have posted a few times on some of the threads, but haven't introduced myself yet. Up until about a year or so ago, I had been a lifelong attendee/member (I guess you're not officially a member until you've been baptized, which I was as an early teen) of the church of Christ. Please notice that the lower case "c" in "church" is no mistake; I specifically came from the non-instrumental, non-institutional, aka "anti" coC, and we were always careful to make sure to keep that first "c" lower case so that others would know that we were not just Another Christian Denomination. We were the "no-bus, no-gym, no-playground, no-kitchen, no-fellowship-hall, no-preschool, no-instruments, no-evening-service-Lord's-supper, but Sunday-class-is-okay, and so-are-multiple-cups" variety coC. Oh and of course, since we got all these things right, we were the One True Church™.
I began to question and challenge the dogmatic coC doctrines about 8-9 years ago. I was active teaching, preaching, song-leading, and doing lots of other activities in the "worship service." As time went on, more and more of these doctrines seemed to be based on church traditions and man-made beliefs, rather than on the Bible (which I typically referred to as "the word of God" rather than "Bible").
Suffice it to say, I pretty well studied myself out of the coC. During much of this time, I challenged many of the coC teachings with preachers, elders, and others. I could feel the hostility toward me rising, felt so beat down every Sunday and Wednesday, that I threw in the towel and began going to a progressive coC, and taking a backseat to service and leadership roles within the church.
Little did I know that I was also on the verge of giving up my faith completely (not losing - but giving it up), yet that's where I am now. There's obviously loads that could be unpacked behind what I have shared here, but that's for some other time.
So that's a short synopsis of me. Not even sure what I hope to get from or contribute to this forum, but I suppose it's helpful to see the experiences of others, and share mine as well. These experiences can be filled with emotional turmoil, pain, hurt, and quite frankly a lot of very unloving behaviors by the most die-hard Christians, and often close family members.
