belong

There are some families and associations that we have by birth, and  some we have by choice. My Church of God story is both of these.

My maternal grandmother grew up attending a methodist church with her grandmother, though her parents did not attend church. When my mom was 3 years old, the family was invited to a children’s program at the Amsterdam Community Church of God in Amsterdam, OH. From that first service, my mother’s family was shown such love and acceptance that they never left. My grandmother had been attending a Methodist church that practiced a very private faith life and this did not sit well with my grandmother. She believed that your faith was to be shared…and that your services should end in an altar call. This communal faith life was another important aspect of the Amsterdam church that helped my family to make their home there.

My father did not grow up in church. After he and my mother were married in the late 1970‘s and he felt called to the ministry, my parents moved to Kansas City, MO so my dad could attend a bible training school. Because my mother had grown up in the Church of God, they began attending Rev. Carl Poe’s church. Throughout his studies, my father became increasingly dissatisfied with the theology presented in his classes. He would often spend time with Rev. Poe, talking theology and processing his own thoughts. My father soon found that the theology of the Church of God put words to the theology he had been unearthing in himself, before knowing what the Church of God believed entirely. It was only after he became a Church of God pastor himself, that my father learned of the Church of God roots in his own story; that his grandfather had grown up in the Church of God in Dunbar, WVA, and that my father’s great grandmother was sanctified because of two female Church of God pastors who held a tent revival just outside of Dunbar. In some ways, it feels as though God has always been drawing my family to the Church of God.

I grew up in the Church of God. My family pastored in Ohio and Kentucky. I grew up loving the Church of God and participating in church camps, state and international youth conventions. I began going to Anderson Campmeeting when i was 6 weeks old and had my understanding of the global church formed by my time in Kid’s Place. Being in a pastor’s family, we moved every 8-9 years. The Church of God was my homestead. It was what was consistent and familiar in my life. No matter where I lived, the Anderson Campground and Anderson (College) University were a constant location to which we would go “home” each year. The Church of God was our extended family. We had pastors in and out of our home for revivals and visits. We hosted missionaries home on furlough. I grew up knowing that these were my people. We belonged to each other. We were home for each other.

In college, I became friends with a number of people from different Christian denominations, and began doing ministry with those friends in a number of churches in Ohio and Kentucky. Through our conversations about ministry and theology, I began to think deeply about my own beliefs and what held me in the Church of God. Why do I call myself “Church of God”? Why do I align with the theology of the Church of God? Is it simply because this is what my family and church family believes? I wrestled with what I believed and deconstructed so much of my faith during that time. I transferred to Anderson University (AU) in what would have been my senior year of college. I felt strongly that the Lord was leading me to ministry, and a week trip to AU to visit friends confirmed that this is where I was feeling called. I entered AU with a commitment to being open to learning and willing to risk that the Church of God may not be where I land when all is said and done.

Throughout my time at AU and then in the Anderson University School of Theology, I found that my draw to the Church of God went deeper than a lifelong association with the people. I believe deeply in the theology of the Church of God. I believe that the way we can enact the Kingdom of God best in the world is through Wesleyan Holiness and Unity with other believers. When we live holy lives, allowing love to take precedence in our relationships, living well together, remembering that we belong to each other and living as such, the Kingdom of God is among us. When we can join with our sisters and brothers in our communities and around the world to live these holy lives together, the Kingdom is now. This not only gives me hope, but, I believe, is an incredibly relevant message for the time and place we now find ourselves.

I also knew, as I progressed through my ministry training, that it would not be easy for me to find a ministry position in my own church. Being a woman, even in a church that has historically believed in the equality of women in the leadership of the church, presents a much more difficult process of moving into vocational ministry. For some women in the Church of God, it never happens. Many have encouraged me to seek ministry positions outside of the Church of God, where my education and training will be more readily accepted. But as a part of my call to ministry, I feel a call to the Church of God. I feel called by God to minister in this body of believers and to give back to the church that has invested so much in me.

I am Church of God. I was born in the Church of God, baptized in the Church of God, raised and educated in the Church of God. But more importantly, I am Church of God because I choose to be Church of God. I am Church of God because I believe that the core of our theological identity as a movement is how we can best live out the God’s call to enact the Kingdom of God in this world.  And I am Church of God because this is where I feel God has called me to minister.

I am Church of God; by home, by call and by choice.