Ben and I have been praying about a church to join once we are married and move away from my home church. It seems like we may have found one. The only problem is that it isn't Baptist - I don't even think that they have a baptismal! But in spite of their obvious lack of doctrinal understanding, they seem to be a friendly church with a heart for biblical teaching and serving their community, so I can overlook some differences (Just please don't tell my family).
This past Sunday we decided to check out the twenty something Sunday school class to get a better feel for the church. It was a small class with only about 10-15 people in it and most of them were of newly married couples. There was one other couple there that were visiting for the first time. They seemed like nice-down-to-earth people that I could see Ben and I spending time with.
As we were studying Ephesians 2, someone brought up the lack of unity in the universal church. They made a few ignorant statements about how Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants all hate each other. Not necessarily true but I could overlook his gross generalizations until Mr. Tactful said, "And well, everyone just hates Baptists." This led to some nice awkward silence until Mr. New Couple spoke up and said, "Actually my wife and I are Baptist and this is the first non-Baptist church we have ever gone to." After that we just kind of sat there not really sure what to say, but sure that the new couple would not be coming back. Ben broke the pregnant silence with, "Yeah my fiancee goes to a Baptist church and I grew up Baptist so I hope everyone doesn't hate Baptists...." Oh, Snap!
Ben later went on to set Mr. Tactful straight on a couple other misstatements he made. Don't you be messin' with my man. You think you know a little bit about church history? Just watch out because one misstep and he'll set you straight so fast you won't even know what hit you. Newb.
This is just one more reason why I am so excited to marry this man!
Note: Growing up as a Baptist I never hated people in different denominations, I just didn't think they were Christians. It wasn't until about High School that I realized Methodists and Presbyterians loved Christ. In college I figured out that Lutherans, Catholics and Penecostals also could get into Heaven. This past year I've come to understand that the Orthodox Church isn't some crazy cult, but that they really are trying to follow Christ. Crazy huh? It's like I just found out there are a whole lot more people who love God than I thought. This is GREAT!
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