SCL

Good, Jon. My Dad was a pastor, too. But I was frequently reminded that God had no grandchildren!

I can relate… Very good point, well said.

Good point! I always said, “I was raised in a Christian home,” until I went on a foreign mission trip and they drilled into my head that people in Papua New Guinea were not going to have the slightest clue what that meant. (”Even the houses in America are Christian?!”)

As a Christian who didn’t “grow up in the church” (or grow up going to church) I appreciate this a lot. I always feel sad when I ask people how they came to know Jesus and they say, “I grew up in the church.” I’m like, “So? How’d you fall in love with Jesus?”

From a fellow PK – good call. Church doesn’t happen naturally. It’s supernatural. Keep up the funny, thoughtful posts.

re: Christine

That’s the thing, we can’t remember! I honestly can’t tell you when my knowledge became faith. I can tell you it was by the time I was 13, but other than that, I haven’t a clue in the slightest. For me, it’s not so important HOW I came to love Jesus, but what He’s done in me SINCE then, and THAT is where my true testimony lies.

The great Len Ravenhill used to say, “It isn’t so important that you walked an aisle. The question is, ‘Do you love Jesus today?’”

So, what phrase do you prefer for someone who was raised going to church but has decided to leave it? “I grew up in the church” is a great way of saying, “yes, I know the stories, the arguments, the history, whatever you want to call it, yet I’ve still rejected it.” How else should a person respond to a someone trying to convert them with arguments they’ve heard and rejected? Or how else do you let someone know that you actually understand their perspective even if you’re not living it yourself?

My second daughter is practically growing up in the church. My wife is the church bookkeeper, and outside services, our 21-month-old is there with her another 15 hours or so a week. She plays as much in the church office as she does in her own bedroom.

A few years ago I was working for a company in one of the western states. My boss asked me if I had grown up in the church. I said, “Yes.” Next thing I know I’m talking to people about doing a project in Salt Lake City for the temple. The company thought I was a Morman. I had to set the record straight by explaining to my boss that I was an evangelical Christian. So I learned my lesson. Got to be careful when you say, “Yes, I grew up in the church.” I’m thinking the boss might have had a different church in mind if he had asked me that question in Rome.

Well said.

Amen.
And thank you for using what could be an opportunity to riducule the church to actually move us forward!

I hope that we can “grow into” a church that is of God, and not “grow into” a church that continues to exlcude people and communities from full inclusion in the church on the basis of race, gender/gender identity, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation.

Every. Single. Testimony. Either has the phrase “I grew up in the church” or “I didn’t really grow up in the church.” All of them. Not a single testimony I have ever heard is devoid of one variation of this phrase or the other. Dangit now I need to rehash mine just so I don’t say it anymore.

For me, having “grown up in the church,” is an essential part of my testimony because it really highlights God’s grace in my life. Even though I had gone to church all my life, I didn’t really understand what it meant to live a life dedicated to God until recently, and sharing that can sometimes help other people to re-examine their relationship with Christ.

It also emphasizes the overarching power of God’s redeeming love, that someone who has never set foot in a church in their life until now, and now believes, is just as saved and just as forgiven as I am, even though I have been going to church my whole life. It puts me in mind of a verse, Ezekiel 18: 21-22 “But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him.”

Actually Jon, you’re right, we are the church. The bible reveals this in numerous places, even in the old testament. Eph 5 is one of my favorite examples. Much like Eve came out of Adam, the Church comes out of Christ. Similarly, Adam’s rib was taken and with that, God “built” Eve. Today, the Lord is building the Church into His corporate expression.

In practicality, as the Church, Christ’s body, we strive to keep the oneness through the growth in the divine life through taking in God’s word as our spiritual food and by pursuing with other members (2 Tim 2:22) of the Body. Though we may have a specific “spiritual diet” in the form of the truth that we believe, and some others may disagree with what we believe, we believe it helps us to grow spiritually, and it doesn’t change the fact that we are still all the Lord’s, his body, the church.

I feel like "I grew up in the church" sounds apologetic, almost like "it isn't my fault I'm a Christian."

I might out myself as a Bible Bowl and word nerd, but "Eli grew up in the church" made me snort milk through my nose! That was the greatest thing I'd seen all day. Thank you.

And now that I think about it….I tend to giggle at inappropriate times at church because of the way something is phrased, and you just gave me more fodder. This does not bode well for my son and I who will surely continue to laugh inappropriately every time we hear this.