How did you get into the church of Christ? SURVEY

[FinallyFree]

Interesting that no one checked that they searched the scriptures & found the CofC to be a match to their understanding of the truth.

[agricola]

Interesting that no one checked that they searched the scriptures & found the CofC to be a match to their understanding of the truth.

Why, you are right! What an odd circumstance that is!

Hm -
I just had a thought: searching the scriptures - why, that is how I got OUT of the coc! Dear me, what a surprise.

[B.H.]

Did anyone join the church of christ because they were uner the influence of illegal drugs?

[KLP]

Interesting that no one checked that they searched the scriptures & found the CofC to be a match to their understanding of the truth.

Faith cometh of hearing...happy are the feet that bring the Good News of Salvation in Jesus. The Berean Jews searched the scripture to verify the things that were taught were true and founded, they were called more noble for being willing to re-examine and consider the traditional Jewish understanding of their scripture. So no, it is not at all interesting or unusual that people come to the church from teaching or family.

The idea about if you just read the scripture in an honest and unbiased manner you would spontaneously form a CofC is like the thing where a case of Bibles falls from the sky in the jungle or an isolated island...and the people in that spot happen to able to read the language...they would form the same thing as they read about and it would look just like your local CofC. Sort of like "The God's Must Be Crazy" but with Bibles instead...and drop some copies of Muscle and Shovel and Fascinating Womanhood for good measure of course.

[Moogy]

I loved that movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy"!

[Free Spirit]

Interesting that no one checked that they searched the scriptures & found the CofC to be a match to their understanding of the truth.

Why, you are right! What an odd circumstance that is!

Hm -
I just had a thought: searching the scriptures - why, that is how I got OUT of the coc! Dear me, what a surprise.

HAHAHHAHA! Same here! I was very frustrated and confused and decided to figure it all out for myself by reading the entire Bible from cover to cover. It took me a few years, but by the time I was done, I had come to the conclusion that the COC does not reflect Jesus' message of love and inclusion.

[Rex1282]

I would love to hear from some other people who were born into large southern families (Tennessee here) where attendance and membership in the CofC was a form of birthright or rite of passage. I myself was baptized when I was 13. My mom and her 9 siblings all grew up in a small town and all of my cousins where raised in the "church". Myself, at the moment, I'm exploring the Episcopalian Church.

[Ivy]

Hi Rex!! Welcome to the board!!

[Tsathoggua]

I would love to hear from some other people who were born into large southern families (Tennessee here) where attendance and membership in the CofC was a form of birthright or rite of passage. I myself was baptized when I was 13. My mom and her 9 siblings all grew up in a small town and all of my cousins where raised in the "church". Myself, at the moment, I'm exploring the Episcopalian Church.

Quite a number of my relatives are CofC'ers, but not really "entrenched" to the point of being elders or preachers or deacons. My mom attended the CofC until she died in 2000. One of her sisters (my aunt) is Anglican, and another aunt is "New Age". Another attends CofC services, but also has a lot of "Spiritualist"-type beliefs. Another sibling holds basically traditional CofC-type fundamentalist beliefs, but does not attend services (due to social anxiety).

I was baptized when I was ten or eleven, but I never really totally subscribed to the fundamentalist-type mindset. I attended church regularly, but I really would have preferred to stay home and read comic books and watch sci-fi movies....

[Moogy]

I would love to hear from some other people who were born into large southern families (Tennessee here) where attendance and membership in the CofC was a form of birthright or rite of passage. I myself was baptized when I was 13. My mom and her 9 siblings all grew up in a small town and all of my cousins where raised in the "church". Myself, at the moment, I'm exploring the Episcopalian Church.

I was born into a large Southern COC family, in Texas instead of Tennesee. My maternal grandfather was a COC preacher. One of his 4 boys became a COC preacher. The three other boys and all three of the girls stayed in the COC as adults. Some of the 25+ grandchildren began to drift away...but two of the grandsons are COC preachers, two granddaughters married COC preachers, and many of the others are still members. I totally believed most of the doctrine, was baptized around age 11, and didn't leave until my early thirties. Good thing women were not allowed to preach, or I might have become a preacher, too!