Hmmm, interesting. I see the NEW TOPIC button in all forums but not in the "Announcements and Introductions" forum. So I guess I can intro myself here.
I grew up outside the Church, so basically a heathen. My mother took me to Sunday school some as a small child and I recall getting a Bible at the end of Sunday school, but don't remember anything else, not even what kind of church it was, but I think she maybe liked Methodist. But the reason we went to church so little (occasionally on Christmas or Easter) I believe is because my dad was not into it and told her to go to the Unity Church. My dad also was into astrology. As kids I remember playing with an Ouija board, which I now realize was a terrible thing to do. One good thing that happened is that I felt that I should read that Bible the church gave me and attempted to do so several times but quit partway in to Genesis. However, that was enough as you will see below.
So fast forward past rebellious, drug and alcohol infested teen years to the 1980s. At some point in the early 1980s I actually picked up a New Testament and read it, but my main pursuit was Native American religion. I had partly cleaned up my act and was in college to "make something of my self." A friend at school was praying for me, and to make a long story short, I heard the gospel for the first time in a way that it clicked and I was born again. Being on a secular college campus steeped in evolution (and myself never questioning it), when I was born again, I instantly realized that evolution is a lie. I think this is a huge plus of having read the first chapters of Genesis so many years ago.
So I was conservative Lutheran since 1984. But I have been on a journey the past year or so that has landed me smack in the middle of the Anabaptists. I have attended a couple of conservative Amish/Mennonite churches on vacation and liked it a lot. Early this year my wife and I discovered a church near home that is much like the conservative Mennonites and we have been attending regularly since March. It is the Apostolic Christian Church of America (
http://www.apostolicchristian.org/). While having "apostolic" in a church name often brings up images of speaking in tongues or the idea of apostolic succession, the ACCA has neither of those features. Rather it is "Apostolic Christian" because they follow the teachings of Christ and the Apostles. They got their start in the early 1800s and right away picked up a lot of Mennonite teachings. They are much like conservative Mennonites from what I can see.
I now realize that Lutheranism has a LOT of baggage carried over from the Catholic church and that Luther's reformation went astray when Frederick the Wise took Luther in to Wartburg Castle for protection. Luther then was no longer free to pursue the pure teachings of the Bible, but had to please Frederick. As church and state were one in those days, a lot of politics came into play. Luther also wanted to rejoin with the Catholics and I look at Lutherans now as "Reformed Catholics." I no longer consider myself Lutheran. The reasons are many, including false doctrines (Universal Objective Justification being the major one) and failure to encourage holy living (they seem to despise those who strive for holy living, referring to them as pietistic--what's wrong with being pietistic?). I am very happy and at home with the conservative Mennonites and this ACCA church. I am not officially a member, but a "friend" and we are going regularly since March.
So I am looking forward to a great experience here, sharing and learning with like-minded Christians.
