Some of my readers (all 5 of you :)) may be at odds with some of my beliefs. So far I haven't shared too many of them with you, but as of late everything I do, everyone I talk to and everything I read has, at least, undertones of faith. So here it goes...
Being raised a Christian, one that goes to church every Sunday twice and Wednesday, I have often toyed with the notion of becoming a preacher. In the last year and a half it has stayed on my mind fairly regularly.
To add a little insight to this, about 3 years ago my dad quit his retirement job to go back to school. A 63 year old man with a bachelors in engineering went to Herritage Christian University in Alabama to live his life for the Lord. After 2 years of schooling he graduated. He worked as guest speaker at a few places for a little while but finally found a "home", Grassy church of Christ. This new place that he was preaching at had about 100-120 regular members about 20 to 30 years ago but this has dwindled down to about 30. The former preacher at Grassy, in it's hayday, taught that all you had to do was believe in the deity of Christ and you would be saved.
This is surprising to me because most of the church of Christ's I've ever been to believe in the Bible word for word. If anyone out there has ever read the Bible, or any of it's books, you know that this is not true at all. A person must obey, what I like to call, "initial obedience". Since the Apostles were given the authority to loose or bind the New Covenant (Mat 16:19...go check me). The book of Acts is all about the Apostles and what they did. There are 6 things that the Apostles taught about that one would have to be done to be saved. We must hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized and live faithfully from there on, or as I described it "initial obedience". (If you would like me to find all of the scripture to back that up, please let me know)
Sorry for going off track there for a while, but I felt like I had to explain a little more.
Anyway, back to the story, my dad is preaching to people that have somewhat of a skewed view of religion. The numbers at Grass have increased some, but only by 10 or 20 (for a while he said there were about 60 showing up). His sermons aren't what most of them want to hear, but the members see that everything he says is scriptual so "He hasn't been fired yet" as he says.
Now for the moral dilema. My dad mentioned to me that if a young guy like me were to come down and start a youth group it could really help revive the place. When he said it he wasn't implying that I up and move to Alabama, but for that reason I took it seriously.
(Pondering to myself here) Since this has been on my mind for so long, should I take it into consideration?
There is no doubt in my mind that I could help fighting the good fight down there. There is no doubt in my mind that I could change people's lives for the better through God.
Should I quit my job and live MY life for the Lord...totally???
It doesn't even have to be narrowed down to Alabama though, I could do this anywhere.
Everything here is totally open for conversation or debate...friendly, respectful debate. Even if you totally disagree. :)
Also, my questions are open for response, but are really intended as rhetorical.
