belong

Do I belong to the Church of God because I believe, or do I believe because I belong to the Church of God?  I have always been in the Church of God.  Steeped in it actually.  My parents are both ordained Church of God pastors.  My Grandfather is a retired Church of God pastor.  My two brothers and I are all pastors in Church of God congregations.  I even went so far as to marry the daughter of a Church of God pastor, and her brother is also serving and working on his ordination in the Church of God (and he also married a Church of God PK).  All of my immediate family members, and their spouses, are all graduates of Anderson University/College/etc.  Family of God, indeed.

As a pastor’s kid, I moved around a lot.  I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, Florida again, California, Indiana again, and now Michigan.  I attended two elementary schools and three junior high schools.  I moved, on average, about every 5 years (we stayed longer some places than others, and that counts my move to college).  These weren’t just moving from an apartment to a house in the same town.  These were “we’re leaving the state” moves.  However, through all the moves, there was a constant place.  Anderson, IN.  My parents never missed going to Anderson in June, and so I rarely missed going to Anderson in June.  It didn’t matter where we were, Florida or California; every year we would go to Anderson.  I became pretty familiar with the campus.  (I remember being disappointed when I found out that my first Indiana State Youth Convention was going to be held in Anderson, instead of Indianapolis.  I’d seen Anderson; I wanted to see Indianapolis.)  So when it came time to choose where I would attend college, I didn’t think it much of a debate.  I would go to Anderson University.  That’s where my family went to school.  It’s where I’d gone to Campmeeting all my life.  I was Church of God, that’s where Church of God students go.

In college, I had the chance to evaluate my faith tradition.  What was the Church of God really about?  Did I still want to be a part of the Church of God?  However, I’m not sure that I really objectively answered those questions.  I took church history and Church of God history, and found that I agreed with where the Church of God was, theologically.  But did I agree with Church of God theology because it was what I believed, or because I knew it was Church of God theology and so I agreed with it?  The truth is that it was probably a bit of both.  I thought our theology made sense, but maybe even more so, I had grown up Church of God, and didn’t really have a reason to leave it, so I found myself adopting it.  In fact, I don’t think I could be anything other than Church of God, even if I wanted to.  It is so much a part of who I am and where I come from that to try to be something else would just seem… unnatural.  I attended a Nazarene church for a while, during my college years.  But no matter how much I was accepted by the people, who were all very friendly, I still always felt like an outsider.  I belonged in the Church of God.

So, maybe my examination of the Church of God was not as objective as some others.  Perhaps, by the time I got to college, I was already so indoctrinated that the chances were already pretty remote that I would align with another tradition.  Ultimately my experience was less about a decision to side with one tradition or another.  My experience really became about “owning” that tradition.  Suddenly, while I was in college, I knew that being part of the Church of God because my parents were Church of God wasn’t good enough.  If I was Church of God, then I needed to really own that.  So my Church of God history class was less about examining the merits of that tradition, and more about aligning myself to MY tradition.  Not about understanding the Church of God so I could decide to stay or leave, but so that the Church of God could mold me and what I believed about how to live as a disciple of Christ.  Ultimately every Christian is endeavoring to become more and more conformed to the image of Christ, and for me the Church of God has been the chisel that God has used to shape me.

Here I am, a young pastor, ordained in the Church of God, leading a Church of God congregation, because I can do absolutely nothing else.  I recall my wife inquiring if I would be willing to look for pastoral opportunities outside the Church of God, if jobs weren’t forthcoming.  I told her that I couldn’t see myself as a pastor of a congregation in another tradition.  Not because the Church of God was better (or more right) than other traditions, but because the Church of God was ingrained in my own identity and God had laid a call on my heart to serve Him through the Church of God.  That belief has only grown stronger as I have gotten older.  The more I study about our history and our values, the more I believe that the Church of God is poised to respond to our culture’s growing questions about God, life, and meaning.  I believe that the Church of God brings a unique perspective to whole of Christianity that is worth sharing.  I believe that God is not done with us yet, and has some great plans ahead for us.

I belong to the Church of God because I believe that; and I believe that because I belong to the Church of God.