Who Am I? (LONG - be warned!)

If you've been at my blog for a while, you'll know I have balked at revealing my denominational identity. I know there are a load of pre-conceived ideas out there, mainly resulting from contact with one or two folk who kinda "set the norm" for everyone else. I didn't want to risk being bashed or shunned or BOXED and labelled.

But K3 was right in commenting here a while ago that:

"You might never find the "perfect" denomination. I identify strongly with the doctrine of my church, although there are a couple of sub-points I am not personally "convicted" of from the Scriptures. I mean, I see where they get them from, but in a case or two I also see where something else could be equally said. (Not on matters of salvation, etc.) If you are a thinker at all (which obviously you are then probably no "box" will be a perfect fit, but there are benefits to having a body with whom you can share a lot of faith and on the rest of it, sharpen each other."

It's made me think a lot about my search for spiritual identity and denominational questionings. So much so, that I'm finally going to assign myself a label, put myself in a box, bare my back to potential whippings! Brave, hey.... :)

So here goes.....

(deep breath)

I am a Non-Denominational Seventh-day BapVentist Christian. (Hey Jamie, you thought you know who/what I was - were you right? :) )

Non-denominational, because I still need to be convinced that denominations are the best thing, or even a good thing. I don't like the boundries, the finger-pointings and the back-seat-of-the-Christian-car squabbles that go on between denominations. I'm still working through this one, but in the meantime am trying to build bridges between folk who usually don't mingle, to find common ground where we can meet and work together in harmony and love.

Hence the Seventh-day BapVentist. After throwing out the baby and the bathwater and starting again from scratch, I find my beliefs generally do line up with the Seventh-day Adventist ones I grew up with. There are some I don't agree with and there are a lot that are implimented in a way I don't like at all, but the basics are there, generally speaking. Like my Sabbath rest, which I cling to "religiously" - excuse the pun - but not legalistically, and whose blessing I can't do without.

BapVentist though, because I currently serve and worship in the local Baptist church. I don't agree with all the beliefs there either, but that's where I feel most comfortable worshipping and where I feel most included and welcomed. It's a community I enjoy being with, and one I hung out with over New Year. Great folk!

Have only really found 3 beliefs different from mine there, and they're not essential to salvation! It seems most Christian churches hold similar beliefs with only a few variations on a theme, so I could probably be worshipping anywhere without too big a clash.

I can't comfortably worship at the SDA churches in this area for many reasons, too many to post here - I'm not your normal every-day Adventist and as such am a bit of an outsider. I see things way different, I need more than what's on offer. I've in a way been "kicked out" into the cold because I'm questioning everything. I refuse to conform for tradition's sake, and that bugs a lot of the herd! But I know SDA churches in this area are stuck in a major time-warp. The church my dad pastors in Sydney Australia is WAAAAAYYYYY different! Poor mom nearly had a heart-attack the first time they attended, having been brought up pretty conservatively. And my sis-in-law can't get over the fact they said "crap" in church! :) Maybe I'll fit in better over there - maybe not. Remains to be seen.

Christian, because this is what I want to be most identified with. A Christ-follower, doing my best to step in the footsteps of Him who came to save me. That overshadows all the other little labels I have attached to me, it supercedes them all and puts them all into perspective. This is what I'm aiming for more than any other thing - to follow Christ as honestly as I can, to the best of my ability.

So that's who I am, that's the strange-shaped box I'm in right now. BUT I'm still on my journey. I could become anything!

Comment away....I'll brace myself.