My apologies for the length and maybe even a little rambling.
I was baptized, attended Catechism, received Holy Communion, went to confession monthly, and confirmed in a Catholic church. I attended Catholic school in the first grade but transferred to public school as we moved to a new city. Shortly after receiving my first Holy Communion I began to serve as an altar boy, which I continued doing well into my teens. I served in the church choir as soon as it was permitted. We attended Mass every Sunday and every Holy Day of Obligation without question. The Catholic church taught to miss a Mass was a mortal sin, which are defined as the most grave of sins. During the season of Lent we attended daily Lenten services where we prayed the Rosary to the Blessed Virgin Mary. These services were not mandatory so as could be guessed I could count on my fingers the total number in attendance at any one service, about half of which were nuns. Some of my earliest recollections include all seven of us children kneeling on the living room floor to say our prayers before bed.
Throughout all my years of attending Catechism and church services I can not recall ever seeing a Bible except for the one on the altar the priest used for sharing the gospel message during church services. I do not recall a Bible in our home either, although I have some faint remembrance of finding one while going through my mother’s belongings after my parents had passed. I do not recall ever being taught how to pray except for the handful of pre-written prayers I was required to memorize. I certainly do not recall being taught that I can talk directly to God himself.
As is common for about 85% of all evangelical Christians according to information I have found, in my later teens I began to really question my faith. The Sunday liturgy and prayers, even the Lord’s Prayer, began to take on a vain, mundane, meaningless repetition of memorized phrases and slogans. I really didn't understand what it all meant or why we did it except that it was required. So, soon after graduating and leaving home I stopped attending Mass or having anything to do with the church. I vividly recall my mother threatening to disown me when she found out, although she never really did.
For the next 15 to 20 years I would classify myself as agnostic. I certainly did not live a life that could have been even partly recognized as remotely Christian. I don’t think I ever completely denied the existance of God but I was in a period of serious doubt. Then, in the mid 90’s my second wife and I had a new baby, another on the way, and my wife who also was not a “church goer” suggested that we should find a church.
It is fortunate we live where we do. This area flows with the presence of God and most of our neighbors are devout Christians. You can sense it when you talk to them. It was their influence that convinced us to join a local country Lutheran church about a mile from our home. Our church has a history with the ALC and although unanimously voted against it, was assimilated into the ELCA at the merger of the late 1980’s to save the 3-point parish relationship it had. Five years ago, after many years of debate and discussion, we, along with one of the other members of our 3-point parish, dissolved our association with the ELCA due to irreconcilable differences and today remain an independent congregation. I am convinced that had we not chosen this area to live, I would not be where I am at today in my walk of faith. God places us where He needs us to be.
After joining our church it wasn't until a few years later that I noticed that my doubts began to fade away. I was asked to serve on the church council as a trustee of the board for two two-year terms. After that I was asked to serve as the council president for three one-year terms. I am currently serving my second term as a deacon and secretary for our church. I have been singing with the choir for the past 20 years, participate in our monthly men's group comprised of many denominations including Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, Mennonite, and Amish. I have been attending a weekly prayer breakfast for the past 15 years or so sponsored by a neighboring Lutheran church and attended weekly adult Bible studies with them as well. I have also been singing in a local men's gospel chorus for the past 20 years. I have led our adult Bible study for a year, and have been leading our High School Sunday school program for the past six years. From my own experiences, one of the things I try very hard to teach to my students is for them to not let the liturgy and prayers fade into meaninglessness. I try to help them see the meaning behind the methods as best I can. Hopefully, God can use me to help one or more of them not become one of the 85% statistics.
I have never had an “Aha!” moment where I can point to a year, month, day, or hour when I was saved. I feel that I am being led forward at a slower pace and in fact this is the reason I chose WIP for my username. WIP is an acronym for Work In Progress and I believe God is not done with me yet. There are things that keep happening in my life that remind of this. One thing is that our pastor has asked me on more than one occasion to deliver a Sunday message in his absence and so far I have managed to evade his request but I always feel it necessary to tell him to keep asking and maybe one day I’ll build up the courage.
Another thing that seems to be happening is lately I have occasionally entertained thoughts of taking some online seminary classes although I don't know where I would do that or when. At nearly 56 years old, I have to wonder why I'm thinking about this now.
Christmas is a hard time for me as I see the commercialism of the season overshadow the birth of our Savior. All of the decorations, trimmings, and shopping just seem to overwhelm and depress me as I see it as worthless and unimportant by comparison. Well, I woke up early Thursday morning and as I often do at Christmas time I pulled out my Bible and began reading the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke. As I was reading, I began to get a strong urge that I needed to present the gospel to our congregation during the service scheduled for 10:00 that morning. I couldn't get the thought out of my mind and ideas were rapidly flashing through my brain. Totally unprepared, when I arrived at the church I couldn't wait to catch our pastor when he arrived so I could ask him if it was okay for me to share something with the congregation. I had no idea what I was going to do or say aside from the text from Luke’s gospel.
I began by sharing how I was very nervous and unprepared as the idea to share came just a couple hours before the service. I talked briefly about how human kind is corrupt but God has provided a way for us through his Son, the Christ, Jesus. The perfect, unblemished, spotless Lamb of God, born to the word to take our sins upon himself in our place. Then I told them I would stop talking and let God to the talking through His gospel which I read from Luke 1:1 to Luke 2:20.
I do not consider myself to be a Christian scholar by any sense of the word and in fact, I have often questioned out loud why I have been asked to lead our High School Sunday School program. It was in December in 2010 when I was feeling my usual Christmas depression that I stumbled upon CFnet while looking for information in preparation for my High School Sunday School lesson of that week. Like my home neighborhood, I found CFnet to be genuinely Christian, friendly, and open and so I decided to join the forums. It wasn't too long afterward that Mike, who was a moderator at the time, invited me to join the moderator team.
Well, that's about it for my story.
