My History with the Lord: The Naive Years

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As I have documented earlier, I traveled an unconventional path to Jesus.  (However, I would argue everyone walks an “unconventional” path.)

I gave my heart to Jesus on May 3^rd, 1980.  I was baptized in a lake and became part of a congregation of people meeting in a converted corner grocery store.  I talked with Sam and Deb Dye every day.  I went to a bible study at their house on Wednesday evenings with a few other kids from my school.  I studied and prayed every day.  If someone said they were a Christian and their lives sort of matched that then I embraced them.  I was pretty hostile to the “High Church” formality.  Sam was insistent on relationship with God and relationship with others as God’s priorities.  I also was encouraged to go to many different kinds of churches.

A girl in my class invited me to her church when she heard I’d been saved, so I went one Sunday evening. We sat in the second pew with a few other kids.  Before  the meeting started another girl tapped me on the shoulder and said (all in one breath),”You go to that ‘Christ’s Church’ don’t you well they believe that only people who are baptized go to heaven well you don’t even need to be baptized to get saved so your theology is wrong what do you think about that?”

I didn’t know what to think.  I wasn’t taught that only people who are baptized go to heaven. I didn’t believe that. I knew that I was going to get baptized because I had read about it on my own in John 3.  I thought it was ironic that I was sitting in a Baptist church getting lectured on why you didn’t have to be baptized, and I didn’t even have a problem with it.

On some Sunday nights a group of us would go to the New Life Center in Des Moines near Drake University.  It was a block of older homes and an old school converted into a Christian Community.  Some folks called them a cult.  I liked going there because they had drums.  The music pretty much sucked, but it was loud and enthusiastic.  Folks would clap and sometimes fall down.  It was chaotic, and I liked it.  I mentioned to someone that I went there occasionally.  He looked at me in disbelief, “You know they are ‘tongue-talkers’?” I wasn’t sure what that was, but he assumed I knew the implications of it.  I gave him my best teenager answer, “So?”  He was even more shocked, “You know all that jibberish that comes out of their mouths might be from the Devil?”  That sounded serious, and silly.  I felt good there.  I liked the emotion and the passion. Sure they were weird and probably crazy, but they were so committed.

I really felt like I could walk with anyone who was going in the Lord’s general direction.  I was not a slouch when it came to study.  I read a lot of books and was introduced to Francis Schaeffer.  It was a very kum-by-ya time.

There were, however two groups I had open hostilities toward: 1.) the super-formal/ultra-liturgical churches who relied solely on tradition, and 2.) T.V. Preachers like Jim Bakker  and Jimmy Swaggart.  I couldn’t stand either one.

I was at a friend’s house and he turned on the 700 Club.  There was Pat Robertson and Ben Kinchlow in the middle of, what looked like, the Jerry Lewis Telethon.  There were tables of people answering phones.  There seemed to be some kind of urgency, like something needed to happen right then.  The phone calls were people calling in prayer requests, mostly medical needs.  Assistants were running on camera and handing cards to Pat and Ben who would read the requests on the air.  They then placed the prayer request cards into a giant “Prayer Clock” which was a huge clock with slots all around the face for the cards.  They then laid their hands on the clock and began to pray, “Lord, hear these requests.  I feel you are healing Bob in Omaha from a lingering sickness and you are healing Sue in Portland from depression and you are delivering Dave in Minneapolis from alcoholism…” and it went on for the next couple of minutes.  Then it was over, and the chaos ensued again with people answering the phones and assistants running around handing cards to Ben and Pat who then read the miracles that happened during the 2-minute prayer. Ben was crying as he read about the man who healed of a life time rectal problem the moment the prayer was done.  Then they cut to a commercial. Awesome.

I guess I’d appreciate being healed of a lifetime rectal problem as well.  But overall, the whole deal just didn’t seem to be…well…right.

I’m still not a fan of those big TV ministries, although I’m slightly less hostile than I used to be.

chris