I think I have been involved in church for nearly 60 years. I know my parents took me to church the first Sunday I was home from the hospital and ready to be out.
I have so many good memories over the years of growing up in church. When I say church I am talking about the building, the organization, the traditional religious system that we all think of when we say church.
I remember all the usual parts of church like going to Sunday school, Vacation Bible school, Children’s church, Junior church and Youth group. I liked going to these activities and I never asked to stay home or miss them. Actually I was disappointed if I was sick and could not go.
In the first church I was part of I remember during Sunday school the main thing I was taught (at least in my eyes) was how to eat a cooking with my finger through the hole in the middle. I do not think my parents were to happy with that and it was not long afterward that my parents moved to another church where I stayed for another 20 years.
There we were taught all the traditional bible stories and were rewarded with pins for good attendance. I enjoyed learning and was presented a bible for doing so well with quizzes and attendance. I enjoyed meeting new kids my age and getting to know them although it took a long time to do since I only saw them for an hour one day each week.
I was always part of Vacation bible school each summer. My mom helped as an assistant or a teacher and I enjoyed hearing the bible stories and making crafts. I remember at the age of ten I accepted Christ at Vacation bible school. I can remember listening to a nice older lady talk about how God loved us and sent his son to die for us. I remember raising my hand when she asked if anyone wanted to accept Christ as savior, then I walked up front and was led in a prayer. Even at the age of ten I realized that just because my parents were Christians I needed to make a decision for myself. It was the best decision I ever made.
As the years went by I moved up to the Youth Group and the various activities young teenagers get to do. I can remember one time I was on the phone with our Youth Leader for well over an hour as he tried to talk me into going on a youth camping trip that I wanted nothing to do with. He was sure he was going to talk me into going but in the end, I won out and did not go. I wondered why he spent so much time trying to convince me to go when he could have talked with three or four other kids who may have really enjoyed it.
Of course as a teenager we would always find the best seat in the Sunday morning worship service, which was the back row. I think the pastor was just happy we were even in the service at all. I also was on the church basketball team and met more new people. I thought it a little weird that many of the kids on the church team were hot-tempered and foul mouthed. I knew that most were not regular church attendees and they only came to church during basketball season. I also knew they were required to be at church as often as possible if they wanted to play. Once basketball was over I never saw them again until the next season.
Once people found out I could play the drums and the piano they quickly enlisted me to play for special services and the children’s church. I did not want to do it since I was extremely nervous about being in front of people, but I felt I would be wrong to turn down using my ‘talents’ for the Lord.
Once I said yes to something the ball really started rolling. Next I was helping with Junior church, going on youth conference trips out of state, doing visitation with the pastor and then added to the Administrative Board. Wow, that was an eye opener.
I had always had a high regard for the church board members who were the ‘backbone’ of the church. I thought what spiritual people they must be to be entrusted with the plans and happenings of the church.
It did not take long to see that what went on in the monthly meeting was certainly not very spiritual. I had never seen so much arguing and disagreement in my life up to that point. Needless to say I did not stay part of the board very long. I decided to leave that to the much older and wiser people (who knew how to argue much better than I).
Well, so much for the early years of my church attendance. It was pretty typical and non-eventful, but I really enjoyed the experiences. I learned a lot and met many people who I enjoyed being around, although most of them I never saw outside of the church building or church planned events. This pretty much brings us up to my church history as a young adult which will be discussed in the next article. Can any of you relate to similar experiences?
Done with Religion 
That’s the truth. So many look to other people and elevate them to positions of authority, forgetting Jesus is the head of the body. My wife and I have also found freedom, guidance from the Spirit and meaningful fellowship with others since leaving the organization. Thanks for the comment.
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This all sounds sooooo familiar! My wife and I tried out being in a local Vineyard church for about five years in the early ’90’s. With its emphasis on “signs and wonders,” the Vineyard Movement was billed as “the next great move of God” and we surely did not want to miss out on that! :-p
The young pastor was a body builder and had a giant ego and would boast that he was so “Vineyardized” that he had “grape juice flowing in his veins.” That always got stuck in my throat as I tried to swallow his party line. It was not long until I became a target in his sights because I dared to contrast what John Wimber was teaching with what the Bible actually said. We were appointed to be the church janitors and he never missed a chance to look down on us. Finally, he and a couple of his board members targeted me and our oldest son as being guilty of something that HE HIMSELF later was proven guilty of and he was booted out of his position as pastor and moved away.
The final straw for us was came six months before, when he forced me to go to a Christian shrink to take a “Character Analysis Profile” test. I submitted to his “authority” and it seems that I passed it with flying colors and that made the pastor even more angry with me! So we quit. We just did not show up any longer and finally after a couple of weeks, I got a call from him saying, “You mean that after I spent $85 on you taking that test, you just up and left?” I said, “Brother if wasting that money on me is your problem, I will have a check on your desk Monday morning!” I paid him back and he was happily rid of us. It does not bode well to point out that, “The King has no clothes!”
I met John Wimber face to face one time and you know what? He did not have nail holes in his hands or scars of a thorny crown on his brow. Jesus paid the price for us to be forgiven and sanctified by His blood and made sons of His Father and NO man has the right to claim our worship and devotion. To do so is just plain idolatry.
Brother, If I was to write a series on all my bad church experiences, it would fill a book. From about 1968 until 1995 we tried to make the false systems of self-willed religious leaders work, all to no avail. For me, being in organized religion was like beating my head against the wall…. it felt so good when I quit! Funny thing is, once I quit being indoctrinated by Sunday school and weekly sermons, I started to hear the Holy Spirit more clearly for myself and was freed up from much confusion. No wonder it is called “Babylon the Great!”
Bless you all,
Michael
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I know, once we leave the church system it takes years for the church system to leave us.
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Didn’t have many arguments but there was quite a bit of ‘heavy-shepherding’, which I am still kicking against even after fifteen years out of church, and then 2 1/2 years in a NOT heavy-shepherding church! The minute someone tries to tell me what to do, I react, well, not violently, but certainly decisively (I break off the conversation!)
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Thanks Jack, good story. I Ike the ‘vineyardized’ term. We went there several years but never did get vineyardized lol.
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“… rewarded with pins for good attendance …”
You mean, stuck with them, like a voodoo doll?!? ;)
So for me, it was the “Building and Grounds Committee” … first meeting there was about 45 minutes of carping about a weed that was growing up through a crack in the sidewalk that the janitor hadn’t pulled “for more several weeks!” I never went back after that meeting. One Sunday not long after, the pastor addressed the “weed issue” saying: “if it bothers you that much, stop and pull it yourself.”
As for the Vineyard – I had aspirations of being a worship leader in a new Vineyard church start-up. The interviewing pastor referred me to the Vineyard web site for information and to apply. So I went there and the requirements said worship leaders “must be Vineyardized” … I muttered aloud “what the hell is Vineyardized?” The web site had a logo in the upper left hand corner – a lovely cluster of purple grapes. No sooner had I asked that question, aloud, I had the brief vision of a hand reach in and grasp that cluster of grapes, squeeze all the juice out of them, then withdraw leaving just the mangled skins still hanging on the stems …
“So that’s what it means to be Vineyardized” I said aloud … needless to say, I never followed up on the worship leader job.
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We last went to a Vineyard also. So many similar stories. Thanks for the comment.
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I grew up in the church too. My mom was big in the word of faith movement and even though they are charismatic, they also relied heavily on church attendance. We went every Wednesday and Sunday. Plus I went to their private school. I practically lived there although I never served. I always was a consumer of sorts. When we left that church, we went to a vineyard church and I went to lots of youth retreats, conferences, and events. Some of it was fun, some of it wasn’t. I was introverted so a lot of it was painful for me. I was close to my youth pastor until he got married and moved away. Otherwise I didn’t stay in contact with most of them. Many of them walked away from the Lord, if they were ever with him to begin with.
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Thanks Mary, I’m sure many of us have similar stories.
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True true true….I started attending asana club and of course I don’t miss Vbs too.i was a child there once and now a teacher.pretty nice to see the kids running around but also hard.
Talents…I was also scared but now am handling. But I guess multiplication happens only when we start using our talents.
Monthly meetings….seriously….they do much arguments. Because of such arguments and disputes, apostle wrote the epistles.if he had a eternal life on Earth he must have been a epistle blogger by now. New problem arises in church every time.
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