Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

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When I first moved here to San Diego, the church had a really good young adult group. We spent a lot of fun Sunday afternoons rollerblading at the beach, other nights at the movies, watched Jesus Christ Superstar on Easter, etc. The guy who was the unofficial then official YA minister helped me get my drivers license, too.

Up until I was 8 or 10 I didn't mind it at all. Classes were reasonably okay, I was pretty good at memorization and almost won a Bible bowl once. Dinners on the ground were great (food!) and I really enjoyed singing. For about eight or ten years after leaving home I kept going back to coc's mainly because of the singing. The arts and crafts in VBS were fun. Summer camp was a lot of fun - they had horses and I was a horse crazy kid.

From about 10 to 20'ish I was increasingly unhappy (alternating with burning zeal for the word, you know?) with the teachings. In my twenties that really came to a head - between 'knowing' that if I wasn't a coc solid believer I would burn forever and yet totally unable to still assent to what needed to be agreed to in order to BE a 'solid believer'...that was a rough time.

But as a kid, it was fine.

I met my husband at church, so that is my best memory. Also, a big thing would be the good pot lucks and lots of food oriented activities. And when I had major surgery, people brought food every day for a week. There were some good times at small groups.

I don't have many bad memories, most of the people have been kind and generous to me and my family. That is one reason it is so hard for me to physically leave. It's the doctrine and teachings I have a big problem with.

I think my more positive experience is mostly because I always mind my own business.

I really didn;t have any bad experiences in the Church of Christ. I look at it as a stepping stone in life, something to pass through but outgrow and move on as I learned and matured in life.

Most of my fond memories were when I was single digits in age. Sleeping on my Grandma's lap, playing tag with others my age, and just being able to be myself.

I have a lot of happy memories. I don't have a problem with the people, who were generally personable. Had a good time at Lipscomb High School and College from 1977 to 1983 (even though I really wish that I had the guts to go to New York to Columbia University). Crieve Hall has many very nice folks. I'm fine with the people, I just have a problem with the doctrine itself...

Church picnics were always fun.

When I was a kid I loved playing tag with all the other kids out in the front yard after services. The best nights of the year were the men's business meetings during the summer. It was late on a Sunday night, it was still daylight and there was no school the next day. The business meeting meant an extra hour or so of playing outside while the moms all stayed inside gossiping. I also used to love drawing pictures during the sermon when I was a kid. When I was too young to be expected to pay attention and take notes, I would just tune everything else out and draw for a half hour, I always enjoyed that as well.

There was the rare instance where the singing was good...I mean really good. When we had a full crowd (usually around 130 on a good Sunday) and all the best singers were there and the song leader led the few good songs I wasn't sick of, it was nice to just listen to the great singing. But that was pretty rare unfortunately.