What Christian Denomination Were You From?

[boftx]

As a child I went to the Baptist church with an elderly neighbor couple. As a teen, I decided to go to the Church of the Nazarene (looking for something I thought was more "into" the Spirit.) I eventually moved to the Assembly of God camp as a young adult, thinking that was the best pentecostal group around.

 

(There was also a two year detour through the Mormons thanks to a cute little red-head, but that is another story.)

[Sheild Maiden]

I was raised evangelical, but I'm attending a Lutheran university right now (for the history major and for the location) and am learning a lot about Lutheranism. My mother's side is Roman Catholic, so I attended a few Catholic baptisms and masses growing up.

[RenaissanceWoman]

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. (Much more conservative/fundie than the gigantic ELCA, but not as crazy as the Wisconsin Synod or some of the other tiny groups.) My grandfather was a preacher, two cousins are preachers, my mom went to the Concordia schools (sponsored by the Synod, at which most of our pastors are schooled), my sister is an organist, my aunts and uncles are all lay leaders, Lutheran school teachers, choir members, Sunday school teachers, elders, etc.

 

Lot of "sin and grace". You're a poor miserable sinner, but you are saved because God loves you, hallelujah! But remember you're an evil sinner, but God saved you by his grace, praise God! But keep in mind that you're still a sick sinner and need to come and ask repeatedly for God to forgive you through his grace, thank you Jesus! But let us remind you that you're a pathetic human sinner, but God has saved you, thanks be to God! But we're still here to tell you that you're a worthless sinner, but Jesus saved you by his blood, all hail King Jesus! Never forget that you're a detestable sinner in the eyes of God... ad nauseum.

[Ro-bear]

I was Methodist.  The services were dull.  The most exciting thing we did was to pull taffy once.  I drew pictures of alligators on the offering envelopes to stave off boredom.  When I tired of that, I concentrated real hard on the heads of the people in the pews ahead of me to see if I could make them explode with my mental power.  I was never able to do so.

[ClaraOlive]

As a very little kid, Presbyterian - this was the peak of my Christian experience. It was not very strict and there was often high quality classical music.

 

After moving to a much smaller and more rural city, when I was 7, my parents sent me to an Independent Baptist fundamentalist, misogynist, anti-science school. To be fair, I don't think they were really familiar with that kind of Christian beforehand, they saw "Christian" in the name and thought it would be better than public school. However, they did have a chance to see what was going on, and I definitely blame them for keeping me there, especially before I was old enough to realize how fucked up it really was. It was extremely legalistic and controlling.

 

At first we went to another Presbyterian church - but it was tiny and eventually went under. The people there were really nice. After that, we went to a Christian and Missionary Alliance church which is a fairly small Evangelical denomination. It was a mostly homeschooling church and I didn't really like that. Otherwise, there wasn't anything really good or awful about it, I was mostly just bored while I was there. So terribly bored.

 

In college, I visited a Lutheran and a Methodist church, sometimes went to Catholic mass with a friend, and I liked the Lutheran church more but only aesthetically, I didn't feel like it was bringing me closer to god or helping me believe. When I was married, we went to a non-denominational Evangelical church. It seemed welcoming on the outside, but when I left, the elder whose small group I'd been in for two years never even called or emailed to find out if I was ok and no one else in the group did either.

[movingon]

I represent the Holy Roller side of things... Praying/speaking in tongues and all of that. Non-deonominational is what they like to call themselves.

this pretty much discribes it

[BendyLine]

I represent the Holy Roller side of things... Praying/speaking in tongues and all of that.  Non-deonominational is what they like to call themselves.

Yeah, we kinda went between this (Assembly of God brand pentacostal) and various Baptist and/or non-denom churches. It's funny how non-denom is basically a wild card; they can be just as wacky as any of 'em. 

 

And yes, I spoke in tongues, and I am embarrassed for it.

 

I've heard that AoG/Pentacostals/Charismatics had the highest rate of people leaving and becoming atheists/agnostics. I don't know if that's true, but it wouldn't surprise me. 

[Endemoniada]

Ass of God. Thankfully, my church didn't get as crazy as others. We believed in 'the gifts of the holy spirit', but thankfully no one was shamed for not being able to speak in tongues or anything (though I got plenty of that at church camp). It could get pretty bad though, mostly in the personal behavior area. There weren't any record burnings, but I've heard speeches about the evils of secular music more times than I can remember. And the evils of secular friends. Basically, anything secular could potentially pull you away from Gawd and was therefore to be avoided. But in practice, no one I knew did this. And there are plenty of people who don't attend the youth group meetings anymore. I don't know if they simply changed churches or what, but my guess is that they don't go anymore. I have no clue as to their current beliefs, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least one other closet atheist attending that church, possibly even in the youth group.

[True]

As you, I've done some church hopping myself. 

 

It assisted in breaking the shell of my previous beliefs, and taught me that there were flaws within Christianity.
 

[RenaissanceWoman]

It seemed welcoming on the outside, but when I left, the elder whose small group I'd been in for two years never even called or emailed to find out if I was ok and no one else in the group did either.

 

Yep. Totally been there done that. I guess they don't really care so much about our salvation, now do they?

[♦ ficino ♦]

My parents were both Methodists by upbringing, but when we moved to a town in NJ, we went to the Presbyterian church.  On the side, my parents went to an SRF group (westernized Vedanta).  I was into that for a while, but in college I got saved into the Ass of God, spoke in tongues, etc.  When I was struck by logic, I became Reformed and joined the Reformed Episcopal church, eventually went to their seminary.  But by then I couldn't figure out how the Reformers - Luther, Calvin - were justified in breaking away from Rome.  Eventually I became Catholic.  It was more satisfying on many levels than the protestant fundy stuff I had been in, but came to realize the unviability of Christianity as a whole and gradually drifted into being an atheist. 

[traveller2]

for the last three yrs of my christian life I was Scottish Episcopal ,before that I was going to an independant charismatic church and before that an Anglican charismatic church in London.iwas never too interested in the denomination.iwas more concerned with a church that i felt ok in and trying to find one without poisnous nasty individuals in it.I gave up that search at theological college when I realised that was never going to happen:much nicer people back in the world.

[MissingLink]

United Methodist for 50+ years.....sigh....

 

Warm and fuzzy, feel-good denomination that preaches on "grace and love" instead of "hellfire and damnation". 
Still not true, though....

[Habiba]

A whistle stop tour of the Methodists in my very early childhood and then straight on into the Plymouth Brethren (conservative fundy protestants) for about 20 years - the family also followed some teachings of a rabid "Bible believing" Baptist preacher from Florida too - not to mention some cultural Islamic overtones in the rather confusing mess.

[RenaissanceWoman]

United Methodist for 50+ years.....sigh....

 

Warm and fuzzy, feel-good denomination that preaches on "grace and love" instead of "hellfire and damnation". 

Still not true, though....

 

As a good Lutheran, I would have to point out that the only reason you need "grace and love" is to save you from "hellfire and damnation."

 

  

 

Agreed... Still not true though...

[WaitingInfinity]

Nazarene. Yup, the one few have heard of. Also, we are known for our love of rules because we have a Nazarene Manual with all of our rules and proceedings listed in it. Kinda like modern day Pharisees.

[ogilvy]

I tried just about all of them.. Anglican, Uniting, Pentecostal, Independent Baptist, Mennonite, and Reformed Presbyterian.

[kolaida]

Non-denominational and Southern Baptist.  I always felt like more damage was done in the small group Bible studies/Sunday school and evening classes than the actual sermons. Though, four of the churches we attended over the years (military family moving a lot) had such incredibly boring sermons. Most of them were pretty rigid and my parents were pretty strict. 

[RipVanWinkle]

Methodist, Baptist,  non-denominational Bible Church, Presbyterian.

 

It seems to me that most of the exchristians here come from a pentecostal, fundamentalist or evangelical churches.  I haven't counted denominations, but that is my impression. If true, It suggests that the more extreme the belief system, the more likely one is to deconvert. What are your views?   bill

[directionless]

The only denominations I attended for more than a few weeks were Episcopalian and Eastern Orthodox, but I tried Four Square and Nazarene briefly. (The Nazarene church had nice music IMO.)

[Ro-bear]

Methodist, Baptist,  non-denominational Bible Church, Presbyterian.

 

It seems to me that most of the exchristians here come from a pentecostal, fundamentalist or evangelical churches.  I haven't counted denominations, but that is my impression. If true, It suggests that the more extreme the belief system, the more likely one is to deconvert. What are your views?   bill

I'm not so sure about that.  I think maybe just as many of the religion lite people fall away, maybe even more, but maybe they don't need support and don't seek out places like this.

[Thought2Much]

Assemblies of God for just about twenty years. My father in=law was the pastor of the church I went to for about thirteen years, before I finally deconverted and stopped going.

 

The Assemblies of God churches in New Jersey are big on speaking in tongues and other gifts of the Holy Spirit, Biblical inerrancy, young earth creationism, spiritual warfare/Satan is everywhere just waiting to steal your salvation, and so on, but they didn't force their women to be draped in denim tents when they weren't in church, and didn't seem to care if women wore makeup or cut their hair, unlike some other branches of the Assemblies of God that I've heard about elsewhere.

 

Looking back now, I feel like I was voluntarily attending an insane asylum for almost two decades.

[itsthecolleenlife]

Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, also referred to as WELS or "those crazy Lutherans". I'm almost entirely out of there now, thankfully. I just need to move away from my parents, and I'll be reasonably set. It's only taken me like what, four years?

 

And the kicker of it all? I was so close to being raised ELCA. My mother was raised ELCA and she only switched when she married my father, and she nearly switched back when I was two. My dad's oldest daughter, my half-sister, was raised ELCA with her mom, and my dad's brother went the ELCA route when he moved to the next state over. I imagine my childhood would've been a lot more bearable had I just been in a different type of Lutheran church.

[DoOrDoNot]

Church of Christ

[pawn]

I hopped around. All of the denominations I tried were fucked up insane asylums. I think that helped me realize that the whole thing is Just a cult. A bunch of delusional people that worship a fucking book. That is what all of them had in common. The bible may as well be GOD itself to most Christians: