Faith sure is a journey

God has certainly led me on quite a journey in my faith life! From a Charismatic Protestant to a conservative Roman Catholic to a reformed paedobaptist to a reformed evangelical.

I grew up in a charismatic/pentecostal home. My parents are still very much charismatic, although they attend church at a Church of God (Anderson IN) in their home town. In addition, they are more than a little supportive of the Word-Faith movement, also known as "name it, claim it" movement. It never sat right with me, and I still don't think it encompasses what God wants His children to believe, but I leave that between them and God. To that end, when I got out into college, I went through a period of testing - going to different churches, not going to church at all, attending campus fellowships, etc.

Ultimately, though, I met HOH at the beginning of my sophomore year, so I really only searched for maybe 12-18 months at most. When I met HOH, he had just taken some time off from Catholic seminary to discern God's will for his life. He met me, and the rest was history. The way he explained his faith, it just seemed so much more "real" to me than all the talking in tongues, "if you're not healed it's because you have hidden sin in your life because God doesn't want His children to be hurt, poor, sick, etc.." or anything else I had experienced. So, shortly after we got married, I was confirmed in the Catholic church. Things went along fairly well for a few years, going to mass, learning that there was a lot more to faith than what I was raised with, and just plain growing up.

The bottom fell out of my nice little world when I was pregnant with Timex, though. HOH felt a pull out of the Catholic church and decided that we should join an Anglican splinter group. The particular group we were in was extremely small with no real pastor (not to be demeaning to our friend who had started this church). I finally convinced HOH to come back to the Catholic church, and there we stayed for another year or so, where I was desparately trying to put down roots in a church that was so big that if you were gone for 2 years, nobody noticed.

One day, HOH decided that we should go to Bloomington IL to meet PastorK, whom he had met on the foray with the Anglican splinter group. As an aside, PastorK is a reformed Baptist minister in Bloomington, and a wonderful dear friend of our family. I was very resistant to this visit, because I knew HOH wanted out of the Catholic church so badly, and I couldn't understand it, at the time. I have since realized why, and obviously I agree now. This visit was very painful to me. I was scared of being ripped up by my roots and trying to fit into yet another church group, especially when I have so few friends anyway. There were many tears at this visit with PastorK and his lovely family. Finally, I awoke the final morning, and God had completely changed my heart. I know that this was God because I certainly wasn't going to budge if it was left up to me (thank you God that it wasn't!).

We came back from that visit with a firm resolve to find a good Bible believing church. PastorK suggested the PCA so that HOH wouldn't have to deal with the minor issue of infant baptism vs believer's baptism while there were other, more major theological issues with which to grapple, like justification, double imputation, free will, predestination, and all the other terms that good Calvinists like the throw around. ;) We found the right PCA church on the very first try, and we enjoyed a little over a year of great spiritual growth there. We also have some very dear friends from that church. Then, a little over 6 months ago, HOH felt that something wasn't quite right with his baptism, and that it wasn't necessarily because it was a Roman Catholic baptism. So, we went to Bloomington IL again, and PastorK had the honor of baptizing HOH this summer. After this trip, it became obvious to our family that our PCA church was no longer the place that God wanted us to call our church home. Thus began the church for a reformed body that held to believer's baptism.

Praise to the Lord that we found a good church, First Baptist, fairly quickly. Since then, we've been blessed even more richly in our spiritual lives than ever before, or at least I have. God has really used our pastor, our ladies' Bible study leader, and our Sunday School teachers to grow my faith. I have a desire to study God's word, which I had never had prior to this, even though I always considered myself a Christian from childhood. I yearn for a closer walk with Him and to please Him more than any other person in my life, even my family. I want to plumb the depths of Him and His mysteries, drinking of the fullness of His mercy and goodness. God is so good, and I'm so happy that He chose me! It is with excitement that HOH and I approach our upcoming membership. There are only 2 steps left in our process - giving our testimonies in front of the church and being voted in. If you remember, please pray for us the evening of March 12. Pray that I remember all that I want to say about my testimony!

Thus ends the story of my faith journey to this day, although I know it will continue for many years to come! While I don't always understand why God had me in some of the places I've been, I'll thank Him for the blessings that it has yielded.