It's no big secret that I was, for a long time, a member of the Jesus Army.
A fundamentalist community church. We were Style 1. In English, what that means is that we had our own home, but were committed 24/7 to the church and it's activities. Style 3 are those that live in community homes, as a family, with other style 3's and give up everything they have for the benefit of the community as a whole.
Style 2's were, back then, were rare. They lived in their own homes, but their finances were managed by the church. I believe that the majority of Style 2's nowadays live in their own homes, manage their own finances, but contribute any excess to the church. Style 3's live in community houses anyway, but 1's and 2' open their homes for 'house groups' two or three times a week.
That sounds intense, but actually, we enjoyed the companionship, the sisters gathering in the kitchen and chucking us out (except when it came to pot washing) and the worship. Nice.
I am not a religious person. However, they enabled us. I wanted to be useful and it was an opportunity I went for, and I have no regrets. Spiritually, and my belief is that everyone has a spiritual side, I am very grateful for their guidance.
For some odd reason, people in the UK they try to hide that they have a spiritual side. Why is that? Is it the Brit thing about not discussing religion and politics?
2 comments:
religion - there was a program on BBC1 sunday morning and the question was should you tick christianity as a religion on the census if you don't go to church.
Well I was baptised but don't go to church but I still consider myself a christian.
Josie x
Hi Wheelie
Good post, honest view point and courageous to print it. I guess it's not cool for our generation to profess openly to our younger bretheren in a proactive way that we have a spiritual side. Everyone at work knows about my spirituality and either ignore it or are amused by it or ask intelligent questions - I don't mind any of them - it's a matter for me - not them.
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