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 Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:04 pm
I am kinda wondering how many people here grew up in the full blown Pentecostal, Evangelical, extremely extreme churches....
I did, and I was talking to an old friend who I grew up with in that same church today. A bit of nostalgia, but at the same time, we were remembering some of the things that just don't fit into our personal walks anymore.
Plus laughing about some of the things, that as teenagers, we just couldn't bring ourselves to accept, and even now, knowing and experiencing what we have, feel we were right in not accepting.
Of course there are awesome things too, but we find those same things in our walks today. Of course, that church was also the first place I truly knew what I was experiencing was God....
I was wondering if anyone had memories to share of their early years in church. The things that stick with you, the things that make you wonder what you were thinking, and the things that you wish you could forget.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:23 pm
I guess I should give my nostalgia example....
My friend and I were talking about 'falling out' to start off today, she actually remembered this...
Our church had a revival every weekend when we were teenagers, and these evangelists always had alter calls for everyone to come and get a 'dose' of the Holy Spirit. I never did get into it.
We also went to allot of revivals as a church, and one time the youth group went to one that specifically reached out to youths. There was a mandatory alter call, and I didn't ever participate in mandatory alter calls, because I felt that they were insincere. The evangelist actually called me and a couple other people who didn't go to the front out. I was livid, and I sat my butt down, so the man approached our youth pastor, and had her drag me to the front and center of the line....
He went down the line laying his hands on the kids foreheads, and they were dropping like flies. He got to me and he said his prescribed little phrase that was sending people down, and nothing happened, so he pushed my head back and said it again, then he pushed harder, and said it again. When I didn't go down on his third attempt, he told everyone that I had a spirit of rebellion, and he tried to cast it out of me. LOL
So when I walked away from his incessant prayers, he made a quick sermon on how rebellion was as bad as witchcraft, and that in the OT days, rebellious children would be stoned. Almost everyone at this rally knew me though, and so they got the impression that the guy was just a showboat. I think all but 3 or 4 people after me stayed standing.
Afterward, many of the kids who were prayed for before me came and told me that they didn't know you didn't have to fall when he prayed for you. A couple others told me the only reason they went down was because they knew he would leave them alone afterward. A few more told me he was pushing their heads so hard that they figured going down was the only way they would survive without receiving a broken neck. LOL
Not saying that you can't have an experience with the Holy Spirit, because I believe you can. But just how many people have experienced the showmanship, and/or emotional hyperactivity of such churches?
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:25 pm
I used to go to a Pentecostal church, so I felt a tinge to reply. I didn't grow up in one, nor did I even grow up Christian {Atheist father and apathetic mother}. When I became Christian I started going to the church my boyfriend went to. At first it was nice {And I still miss the Wednesday Youth Worship simply because worship is my favorite part of church}, but then I started to realize how scary this church was. It had good parts and good people, but that was few and far between. I remember back during voting how they told everyone to vote no on gay marriage. They always made me feel so terrible, too. My boyfriend said I was simply imagining things when I said everyone hated me and felt as though they were thinking terrible things about me. They excluded and ignored me, and even the youth pastor acted condescending towards me.
Of course, then we started going to our current church. Non-denom, and entirely the opposite. My boyfriend now fiance now sees how the church was, because one day we went there for a dinner that his mom invited us to {She goes}. They scowled at him for his tattoos, ignored us, and he was annoyed at how controlling they were of the whole dinner.
Granted, I know some very open-minded Pentecostals. My fiance's mother is one, but she isn't like that church at all. Although, she doesn't really go to church anymore.
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Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:50 am
I never went to such a church. I dated somebody from one, though.
I'm not going to talk about it too much, I'm done talking about it. Just all around bad experiences.
I think if you watch videos about these people, and show them exactly as they are, it's frightening. It's downright frightening. I've been told I have a 'Demon' inside of me, because I've suffered from depression earlier in life. Knowing that I conquered it, and have a good life now, doesn't mean the demon's gone. But it's not a demon, it's a normal reaction to bad stuff that happens in life. It's gone when you start getting everything together.
There is no crime in rebellion, for the right reasons. The Bible is full of Martyrs who went against the law, went against the will of others. One of them just happens to be Jesus Christ, our lord and saviour. To hear that you had somebody try to take the spirit of rebellion out of you, Eltanin, makes me almost physically ill.
People don't need a forced quasi religious experience, nor do they need showboating ministers, or people in tents who lie and say they are healers. Nor do we need "Exorcisms" for the depressed, or mentally ill. But this is what happens in these groups. Heck, even socially anxiety becomes something that is cured 'through Christ." It sickens me.
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Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:52 pm
Yes, it is definitely disturbing...
Honestly though, I look back and laugh my butt off about it, but if it happened to my kids, I would go and do physical, irreparable damage to that minister. I remember how livid my parents were, but as a teenager, I had the smug satisfaction that I had been key in showing everyone how to stand up to such an a**. LOL
My dad wasn't much into church back then, and my mother was the one who really subscribed to our church between the 2 of them. I understand why we went where we did. It was the only church in the area that actually did real ministry to people who didn't belong to the congregation, and they didn't require anything from the people they helped. Mom was the head of the food bank and donations closet, and later the school.
The pastor wasn't all extreme or anything, but he did let the extreme evangelists in for revivals. Mom never really got into the revival activities, and if I went for something to do (it was kinda entertaining) she made sure I questioned everything I did, so I knew if I did anything it would be with a sincere spirit.
Later in life I look back, and see that I have learned a whole lot about the system that surrounded me as I grew up, and I realize I didn't actually grow up 'in' it. I was like Jane Goodall living with the primates (forgive the analogy).
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