Not Raised Christian

[Sudsy]

This is a thread for those who were not raised in a Christian home and are now Christians. Share with us your testimony and some of the before and after life you lived.

[steve-in-kville]

This is a thread for those who were not raised in a Christian home and are now Christians. Share with us your testimony and some of the before and after life you lived.

I was raised going to church but it was something one did, not that it was taken seriously. It was okay to go out to eat after church at the local Pizza Hut or Ponderosa, but it wasn't okay to shop at K-mart.

In hindsight, this lax attitude may have had something to do with going the direction of a more conservative anabaptist church.

[Sudsy]

This is a thread for those who were not raised in a Christian home and are now Christians. Share with us your testimony and some of the before and after life you lived.

I was raised going to church but it was something one did, not that it was taken seriously. It was okay to go out to eat after church at the local Pizza Hut or Ponderosa, but it wasn't okay to shop at K-mart.

In hindsight, this lax attitude may have had something to do with going the direction of a more conservative anabaptist church.

Curious - Steve, were your parents born again Christians that had a born again experience ? I have run into people who were raised in a home where they went to church but the concept of born again was more one of being baptised in water and joining a local church and living by their rules. Would you regard the home you were raised in as a 'Christian home' where parents had an obvious personal relationship with God or perhaps a 'Christian home' that adhered to the traditions and requirements of that church ?

[Josh]

It was okay to go out to eat after church at the local Pizza Hut or Ponderosa, but it wasn't okay to shop at K-mart.

That would be considered quite conservative nowadays.

[steve-in-kville]

It was okay to go out to eat after church at the local Pizza Hut or Ponderosa, but it wasn't okay to shop at K-mart.

That would be considered quite conservative nowadays.

What people in plain communities think is okay (or not okay) to do on a Sunday baffles me. My BIL won't drive a toll road (I.e. Pennsylvania Turnpike) on a Sunday.

I don't judge anymore. On more than one occasion I snuck out to the grocery store early on a Sunday morning to get my wife her Donald Duck orange juice (it's a running joke). But that store sits between two railroad crossings, so I chalk it up as the expenses of my hobby

[steve-in-kville]

Curious - Steve, were your parents born again Christians that had a born again experience ? I have run into people who were raised in a home where they went to church but the concept of born again was more one of being baptised in water and joining a local church and living by their rules. Would you regard the home you were raised in as a 'Christian home' where parents had an obvious personal relationship with God or perhaps a 'Christian home' that adhered to the traditions and requirements of that church ?

I honestly don't know. I'm not full on estranged from them, but we're not really close. My maternal grandmother and my uncle were/are really spiritual people, whereas my grandfather and my mom sort went through the motions, so to speak. To that end, my parents haven't been to a church service in two decades.

I am told my paternal grandmother had some strong opinions on religion and politics, and my dad does as well.

[Sudsy]

Curious - Steve, were your parents born again Christians that had a born again experience ? I have run into people who were raised in a home where they went to church but the concept of born again was more one of being baptised in water and joining a local church and living by their rules. Would you regard the home you were raised in as a 'Christian home' where parents had an obvious personal relationship with God or perhaps a 'Christian home' that adhered to the traditions and requirements of that church ?

I honestly don't know. I'm not full on estranged from them, but we're not really close. My maternal grandmother and my uncle were/are really spiritual people, whereas my grandfather and my mom sort went through the motions, so to speak. To that end, my parents haven't been to a church service in two decades.

I am told my paternal grandmother had some strong opinions on religion and politics, and my dad does as well.

Thanks Steve for sharing your background. I feel very blessed to have been raised in a home where both my parents had a supernatural born again experience when I was very young. Most of my aunts and uncles were all non-churched, worldly living people who over a short period of time became born again and zealous to following Jesus. However, not all of their children, even though raised in a Christian home, ended up as Christ followers. But most did.