...the road to the Charismatic movement
All those other stories I've told... about our involvement in one religious system after the other... even ended up in the 70's in a little Southern Baptist Church where it was a lot more me that was the problem...than them... they had no place to put this big 6'4" guy wearing his work vest that was full of roof cement... and had these little round, very red, florescent "Jesus Loves You" stickers plastered on it... instead of the normal Sunday go to meetin' Baptist outfit of suit, shirt and tie... they even presented us with a cute pink little bible for Jennifer when we dedicated our then baby daughter there.. the same Jennifer who now reminds us regularly that she is "almost 40"... like that is really, really ancient...
We attended there mostly just to "go to Church" someplace.... in order to fulfill what we thought of as our Sunday obligation.... I mean if you are a born again believer you have to go to Church.... somewhere....at least that was what we were taught back then... when we left it was for their sake... they needed a reprieve from Philip... :)
Where it was happening for us though ...was in parachurch organizations... especially our involvement with the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship, International (now that is a mouthfull... it was reduced to FGBMFI) where we were bringing in speakers for these big meetings in Northern N.J. Our speakers were all these high profile people... well known speakers... most had written books... most also had huge personal problems... some sexual... some financial.. some just plain old arrogance.... sometimes all of them... one guy flew in on his private jet... I picked him and his secretary up at the airport... he and the secretary lady shared the room at the hotel that we provided for him... another guy we learned later on was the pastor of a gay church on the West Coast... shall I go on?.... it was not very edifying... it did drive me to God with more and more questions... like... what is it with your people Lord?
We were getting closer and closer to joining our first Charismatic Church... still one more row to hoe... my two year stint with the "700 Club".... which left me asking the same question.... what is it with your people Lord?
Next time....
:)
We attended there mostly just to "go to Church" someplace.... in order to fulfill what we thought of as our Sunday obligation.... I mean if you are a born again believer you have to go to Church.... somewhere....at least that was what we were taught back then... when we left it was for their sake... they needed a reprieve from Philip... :)
Where it was happening for us though ...was in parachurch organizations... especially our involvement with the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship, International (now that is a mouthfull... it was reduced to FGBMFI) where we were bringing in speakers for these big meetings in Northern N.J. Our speakers were all these high profile people... well known speakers... most had written books... most also had huge personal problems... some sexual... some financial.. some just plain old arrogance.... sometimes all of them... one guy flew in on his private jet... I picked him and his secretary up at the airport... he and the secretary lady shared the room at the hotel that we provided for him... another guy we learned later on was the pastor of a gay church on the West Coast... shall I go on?.... it was not very edifying... it did drive me to God with more and more questions... like... what is it with your people Lord?
We were getting closer and closer to joining our first Charismatic Church... still one more row to hoe... my two year stint with the "700 Club".... which left me asking the same question.... what is it with your people Lord?
Next time....
:)
