So how did you end up coming BACK to Christianity?

[Republibot 3.0]

This thread is for people who left Christianity at one point, lost their faith or whatever, and eventually ended up coming back. Share your testimonials. What brought you back again? How did you find your way?

[capricaabydos]

Hmm interesting topic, I'm not sure if I found my way back, but I can say that my bf was a big influence, I had lost my faith and he's been helping me, and his mom's prayers and words of wisdom have been very helpful in my time of need, I'm still working on it but I think I'm on the right path and I can say that having a loved one by your side to cheer you on when you feel confused truly helps when your looking for your way back home, I'm still a work in progress

[LtColCarter]

This thread is for people who left Christianity at one point, lost their faith or whatever, and eventually ended up coming back. Share your testimonials. What brought you back again? How did you find your way?

I don't feel like religions are like shoes...ya know...when they start hurting your feet a bit you toss 'em aside of a shiny new pair. While I may be disheartened with the affairs of my faith...I still hold fast to what I believe in.

[Republibot 3.0]

In my case, I was fanatically fundamentalist. It's weird. My church was fundamentalist, but in the best sense of the word, not the crazy sense. Ditto my folks. Somehow I just ended up being too tightly wrapped about it. Dunno why. This led to me having a lot of strife between my spiritual life and the real world, which led to me eventually chucking the whole thing in my late teens, there was an atheist period, which scared me pretty badly, so I came running back to Christianity, but didn't actually *fix* any of the problems that caused me to leave the first time. This, of course, resulted in me leaving a second time.

It's a little more involved than that, but that's the gist. So I drifted. I tried increasingly heretical and/or radical versions of Christianity, that didn't work. I tried just picking a normal church and going, that didn't work. I tried other religions. That worked better, but was still frustrating. I tried heresies and esoteric theologies and whatnot. That was pretty cool. Unfortunately heresies led to the crazy-assed theories of people who are into heresies. (It's not so much the pool as it is the swimmers) This led to insanity that might charitably be called "Conspiracy Theories" which I sorta' got swept along in.

The upshot to all this was that in the process, I learned a *lot* about what religion is, what its function is, what it's supposed to do for a person, and how we can get the most out of it. It's like I stopped owning a car, and started understanding how it worked and what it was for. By this point I'd long ago realized that hyper-literalism held no water, that the problem wasn't the book, or even me, it was the interpretation that got foisted on me, and around the same time the whole "Conspiracy view" of Christianity kind of crumbled to bits when I looked at it closely and realized I'd picked up a ton of crap over the years that was tendentious at best, or flat out wrong.

And then one day, without really meaning to, I believed again.

I think I was pretty lucky. Few people lose their faith twice and get it back. Few people find their way back on to the map. It worked out great for me, I'm better than I ever was, but I wouldn't reccomend it for others.

[SoulReaver]

In my case, I was fanatically fundamentalist. It's weird. My church was fundamentalist, but in the best sense of the word, not the crazy sense. Ditto my folks. Somehow I just ended up being too tightly wrapped about it. Dunno why. This led to me having a lot of strife between my spiritual life and the real world, which led to me eventually chucking the whole thing in my late teens, there was an atheist period, which scared me pretty badly, so I came running back to Christianity, but didn't actually *fix* any of the problems that caused me to leave the first time. This, of course, resulted in me leaving a second time.

It's a little more involved than that, but that's the gist. So I drifted. I tried increasingly heretical and/or radical versions of Christianity, that didn't work. I tried just picking a normal church and going, that didn't work. I tried other religions. That worked better, but was still frustrating. I tried heresies and esoteric theologies and whatnot. That was pretty cool. Unfortunately heresies led to the crazy-assed theories of people who are into heresies. (It's not so much the pool as it is the swimmers) This led to insanity that might charitably be called "Conspiracy Theories" which I sorta' got swept along in.

The upshot to all this was that in the process, I learned a *lot* about what religion is, what its function is, what it's supposed to do for a person, and how we can get the most out of it. It's like I stopped owning a car, and started understanding how it worked and what it was for. By this point I'd long ago realized that hyper-literalism held no water, that the problem wasn't the book, or even me, it was the interpretation that got foisted on me, and around the same time the whole "Conspiracy view" of Christianity kind of crumbled to bits when I looked at it closely and realized I'd picked up a ton of crap over the years that was tendentious at best, or flat out wrong.

And then one day, without really meaning to, I believed again.

I think I was pretty lucky. Few people lose their faith twice and get it back. Few people find their way back on to the map. It worked out great for me, I'm better than I ever was, but I wouldn't reccomend it for others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ2yXWi0ppw

[squirrely1]

Well here is my story....

I was raised a Christian, attended Sunday School with all the proper trimmings as a family of 5 we were your typical idyllic little family My mom even served as a Sunday School teacher....but life got rough when my sister of seven died suddenly in her sleep....soon after.... parents divorced.... my oldest sister married and moved away.... I was 10 and my life was seemingly shattered. So here is mom back to work (alot) I was sort of left to finish raising myself. Needless to say....THAT situation was not very conducive to the happy Christian household that I thought every family had.

My mom and I licked our wounds as best we could which included scraping around barely making ends meet and dragging my dad into court forcing him to pay childsupport which was $25 a week at the time.

Probably the biggest reason I fell away from my faith was due to my mom...and I hate to blame her for this...and would never tell her so...but after the divorce she became somewhat bitter. Quit the church....dropped her Married group of friends and sort of became a workaholic loner.

She then decided to try a variety of New Age religions and cults to the point she got so good she opened up a make shift "parlor" in our home and yes we had questionable wayfarer/hippie types that would show up to "study" with her and then eventually she branched out and performed some of the following services for "clients" up to and including: Past Life Regressions, Channeling, Psychic Readings, Tarot Card Readings. Well I was naturally sucked into that...hey by now I was 13 or so....I thought it was cool. But something felt off to me.

Fast forward to college days.... I dabbled in this new age stuff and hell I even threw in a little of Buddhism, Taoism, why not some Hinduism too? What the hell... (now letting fellow colleagues sway me a bit).

But I felt a tugging in my heart...an emptiness. I know that sounds incredibly trite, however I felt I needed some reassurance from some form of authority since I felt my mother at that point didn't really offer much in the way of strong leadership for me. So I began to pray... on my own but only to God. I was too young and cool to believe in Jesus and at that time (and probably still with many kids) Jesus was simply not cool...he was that guy that religious freaks aka Church people talked about so much and yelled out "PRAISE JESUS!!" So I thought hey this is good enough.

Well some very important "try outs" were approaching for me. (I was in dance/drill team all through high school and college) *DON'T LAUGH* and I was attempting to audition for the Kilgore Rangerettes and American Drill Team Association ...etc.. etc. ...lots of national and big dealios for this kind of thing. Now it's sort of silly then but it meant the world to me. Anywho.... I prayed for help with my excelling in this area.... (I know I probably abused the whole prayer thing) but oh well I was a kid but I felt it important to ask God to "be with me" support me...help me....guide me....and HE DID!! I made the American Drill Team...performed in the Hula Bowl twice...then traveled around the US and held camps as a dance instructor teaching HS girls this stuff. Didn't make Rangerettes but made the UC Bearkittens (I figured out Texas wasn't where I was supposed to be). Anyway.... It was WONDERFUL!! Because I learned more in my experiences during that time in all sorts of life situations merely due to travel and excellent leadership opportunities. But.... I don't think I'd have made it that far if it weren't for God.

Fast Forward to end of college... I was still not considering myself a Christian....remember Jesus wasn't cool. But this cool stuff was happening to me and I felt fulfilled I got my degree in Art Education through many grants and Scholarships ( another answered prayer). But something was still off.

So one day... low and behold my car just randomly stopped running and I coasted it into ....the parking lot of a CHURCH. I didn't think it odd at the time...just mainly annoyed that I had to fool with the whole AAA thing and such. But when I got a ride home.. I had to get out the yellow pages and "look up this church" to tell AAA where to pick up my car....cuz I couldn't quite remember the name of it. So this got me "looking at Churches". I didn't even think anything at the time....and so life went on. Still not cool to be a Christian BTW. Jesus still wasn't cool.

A few years later.... my car..... broke down again.... in front of a CHURCH I started to get a bit of a complex this time like....OK God.. I think I get your point. I was just standing there and a very nice man pulled over to help me. Did I remember the name of the church? NOPE! That wasn't the point....the point is... I felt this was God calling me home....back to the Church. Now with that said... I am going to say now...I am NOT in Church today. I think churches have gotten corrupted and greedy....so I have wrestled with the whole corporate structure of church...but I did go back to Church for a time... enough that I and my whole family made friends, got baptized and saved....and for the first time in my life.......Jesus was indeed VERY COOL and HE still is!! Amen!!

[Republibot 3.0]

Well here is my story....

I was raised a Christian, attended Sunday School with all the proper trimmings as a family of 5 we were your typical idyllic little family My mom even served as a Sunday School teacher....but life got rough when my sister of seven died suddenly in her sleep....soon after.... parents divorced.... my oldest sister married and moved away.... I was 10 and my life was seemingly shattered. So here is mom back to work (alot) I was sort of left to finish raising myself. Needless to say....THAT situation was not very conducive to the happy Christian household that I thought every family had.

My mom and I licked our wounds as best we could which included scraping around barely making ends meet and dragging my dad into court forcing him to pay childsupport which was $25 a week at the time.

Probably the biggest reason I fell away from my faith was due to my mom...and I hate to blame her for this...and would never tell her so...but after the divorce she became somewhat bitter. Quit the church....dropped her Married group of friends and sort of became a workaholic loner.

She then decided to try a variety of New Age religions and cults to the point she got so good she opened up a make shift "parlor" in our home and yes we had questionable wayfarer/hippie types that would show up to "study" with her and then eventually she branched out and performed some of the following services for "clients" up to and including: Past Life Regressions, Channeling, Psychic Readings, Tarot Card Readings. Well I was naturally sucked into that...hey by now I was 13 or so....I thought it was cool. But something felt off to me.

Fast forward to college days.... I dabbled in this new age stuff and hell I even threw in a little of Buddhism, Taoism, why not some Hinduism too? What the hell... (now letting fellow colleagues sway me a bit).

But I felt a tugging in my heart...an emptiness. I know that sounds incredibly trite, however I felt I needed some reassurance from some form of authority since I felt my mother at that point didn't really offer much in the way of strong leadership for me. So I began to pray... on my own but only to God. I was too young and cool to believe in Jesus and at that time (and probably still with many kids) Jesus was simply not cool...he was that guy that religious freaks aka Church people talked about so much and yelled out "PRAISE JESUS!!" So I thought hey this is good enough.

Well some very important "try outs" were approaching for me. (I was in dance/drill team all through high school and college) *DON'T LAUGH* and I was attempting to audition for the Kilgore Rangerettes and American Drill Team Association ...etc.. etc. ...lots of national and big dealios for this kind of thing. Now it's sort of silly then but it meant the world to me. Anywho.... I prayed for help with my excelling in this area.... (I know I probably abused the whole prayer thing) but oh well I was a kid but I felt it important to ask God to "be with me" support me...help me....guide me....and HE DID!! I made the American Drill Team...performed in the Hula Bowl twice...then traveled around the US and held camps as a dance instructor teaching HS girls this stuff. Didn't make Rangerettes but made the UC Bearkittens (I figured out Texas wasn't where I was supposed to be). Anyway.... It was WONDERFUL!! Because I learned more in my experiences during that time in all sorts of life situations merely due to travel and excellent leadership opportunities. But.... I don't think I'd have made it that far if it weren't for God.

Fast Forward to end of college... I was still not considering myself a Christian....remember Jesus wasn't cool. But this cool stuff was happening to me and I felt fulfilled I got my degree in Art Education through many grants and Scholarships ( another answered prayer). But something was still off.

So one day... low and behold my car just randomly stopped running and I coasted it into ....the parking lot of a CHURCH. I didn't think it odd at the time...just mainly annoyed that I had to fool with the whole AAA thing and such. But when I got a ride home.. I had to get out the yellow pages and "look up this church" to tell AAA where to pick up my car....cuz I couldn't quite remember the name of it. So this got me "looking at Churches". I didn't even think anything at the time....and so life went on. Still not cool to be a Christian BTW. Jesus still wasn't cool.

A few years later.... my car..... broke down again.... in front of a CHURCH I started to get a bit of a complex this time like....OK God.. I think I get your point. I was just standing there and a very nice man pulled over to help me. Did I remember the name of the church? NOPE! That wasn't the point....the point is... I felt this was God calling me home....back to the Church. Now with that said... I am going to say now...I am NOT in Church today. I think churches have gotten corrupted and greedy....so I have wrestled with the whole corporate structure of church...but I did go back to Church for a time... enough that I and my whole family made friends, got baptized and saved....and for the first time in my life.......Jesus was indeed VERY COOL and HE still is!! Amen!!

That's a very cool story! Thanks for sharing, and sorry for all the trauma that led you into it.

With me, oddly, I started going to church again before I started believing again. It's cool to be a loner and a rebel and stuff all through your 30s, but then you start to miss out on belonging to a community. A church offered some programs for my kids, seemed a thing to do, so I did it for a couple years. Then, basically, one day - more or less unrelated to attendance - it all came back.

[squirrely1]

That's a very cool story! Thanks for sharing, and sorry for all the trauma that led you into it.

With me, oddly, I started going to church again before I started believing again. It's cool to be a loner and a rebel and stuff all through your 30s, but then you start to miss out on belonging to a community. A church offered some programs for my kids, seemed a thing to do, so I did it for a couple years. Then, basically, one day - more or less unrelated to attendance - it all came back.

Thanks Yeah same here The Church offered some programs for my kids...but I have a child with severe autism who has pretty awful behavior issues...so daycare for him during Church services really wasn't happening. So that was really one of the main reasons we quit going ....that....and the whole... corporate thing...which depending on the church can be worse than others I realize. I am a teacher at two different Christian schools teaching art and computer...so I feel I have the network and connection to a "Christian Family" through that. We have Bible studies amongst the staff and we attend chapel during school so while in some respects I do miss the Church....I feel connected enough that I'm not totally a rogue Christian

[Republibot 3.0]

Thanks Yeah same here The Church offered some programs for my kids...but I have a child with severe autism who has pretty awful behavior issues...so daycare for him during Church services really wasn't happening. So that was really one of the main reasons we quit going ....that....and the whole... corporate thing...which depending on the church can be worse than others I realize. I am a teacher at two different Christian schools teaching art and computer...so I feel I have the network and connection to a "Christian Family" through that. We have Bible studies amongst the staff and we attend chapel during school so while in some respects I do miss the Church....I feel connected enough that I'm not totally a rogue Christian

One of my kids is special needs too. I'm presently going to a megachurch. I'm really uncomfortable with that, but I feel the small family churches we had when I was a kid have more-or-less evaporated.

You know what else I miss? Singing. Hymns. Group singing was fun. Everybody's got a praise band now, nobody sings. I'm a coot.


Anyway: Anyone else got any stories of their return they'd like to share?

[squirrely1]

One of my kids is special needs too. I'm presently going to a megachurch. I'm really uncomfortable with that, but I feel the small family churches we had when I was a kid have more-or-less evaporated.

You know what else I miss? Singing. Hymns. Group singing was fun. Everybody's got a praise band now, nobody sings. I'm a coot.


Anyway: Anyone else got any stories of their return they'd like to share?

Wow ok it is a small world then.... because my faith has been my rock and cornerstone all throughout dealing with my son's disability. I can't imagine trying to face my daily life without it. Every time I would feel at the bottom of the pit someone or something would come along and pick me up. I know that is God... moving in his way...through people helping people. I don't doubt it for a moment now. So through all this trial in my life....some would come to fall away but to me I have become stronger in my faith because I see it as a tempering ....presenting opportunities for character building and well just an affirmation that God is there...he hears prayer and he answers. Sometimes you just have to be patient.

Oh singing was my favorite part of church... today I love all the Contemporary Christian tunes and we do so much singing in chapel at school it's awesome. But my voice is horrible...I have permanent voice strain....otherwise I would be in some type of choir no doubt Plus I can never get through a Hymn without crying.

[Republibot 3.0]

Wow ok it is a small world then.... because my faith has been my rock and cornerstone all throughout dealing with my son's disability. I can't imagine trying to face my daily life without it. Every time I would feel at the bottom of the pit someone or something would come along and pick me up. I know that is God... moving in his way...through people helping people. I don't doubt it for a moment now. So through all this trial in my life....some would come to fall away but to me I have become stronger in my faith because I see it as a tempering ....presenting opportunities for character building and well just an affirmation that God is there...he hears prayer and he answers. Sometimes you just have to be patient.

Oh singing was my favorite part of church... today I love all the Contemporary Christian tunes and we do so much singing in chapel at school it's awesome. But my voice is horrible...I have permanent voice strain....otherwise I would be in some type of choir no doubt Plus I can never get through a Hymn without crying.

Yeah, I don't know how people get through it without God. But then the obvious answer is 'most don't.' Divorce rate is 50 or 60% in the US, divorce rate involving special needs kids is 2 or 3x normal. I think without a strong commitment to something higher than yourself, and without maybe a community or at least some friends, it's really easy to get selfish or just feel hurt. And then it all falls apart.

I'm extraordinarily lucky: I'm married to the greatest woman in the last thousand years or so. For both of us, it's always been about the team, but most of our friends' marriages have been dropping like flies, and all those kids left drifting in the wind. It's sad. I'm not saying you can't have a successful marriage or family without God, I know people who do it, but it's just so much easier. For me, anyway.