The church burns my feet and so I keep moving

I've had a long and storied experience with Pentecostalism

I joined the Assemblies of God soon after my spiritual awakening in 1988. I got a lot out of the church at first; but when I returned from the missions field after two years, I was amazed by a lot of the problems I was starting to notice. There is a lot that is good in Pentecostalism and charismatic churches, and a lot that is true, but there is also a strong tendency to withdraw and to judge those on the outside.

A lot of the wake-up came for me when I returned from Haiti and realized what a different world I was living in from the rest of the church: I actually wanted to help people, instead of telling them to trust God or go to hell; wanted to rely on Scripture for understanding of God, not personal experiences (my own or others); and wanted to experience freedom, not shallow standards of righteousness that deal with superficial issues.

I tried for close for three years to change my church from within, but ultimately conceded that it was too much. I withdrew my membership from the church, read my copy of "Letters to a Devastated Christian" a few times, and cast about for a while for a new place to attend.

The church I attend now is charismatic in the general sense, with a contemporary service and worship  music, but not in the sense that people are speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Spirit are manifesting themselves.

Our old pastor resigned but was hoping to remain involved under the new pastor once things settled in. Naturally, it turned out to be a naive hope that it would happen that way. The new pastor's been here a little over a year, and Mark's family is still looking for a place to go. I'm back in a period of evaluation with my current church.

While I think our pastor is good at motivating others, he's not someone I find I hold in any great respect. I just find him too funny in his shallowness and too easy to make fun of, rather than someone whom I would listen to with rapt attention or to whom I would go with a personal problem.

My main reason for attending is, as before with Easton Assemblies of God, I see a chance to help other people. I also have a number of relationships there that I value, and my daughter has a number of friends there. Plus my wife wants to go there.