Why I am converting to russian orthodox, part one.

When you make a big change in life, maybe you should explain to yourself and others why you did it. No one but me cares but if you are reading this I invite you to point out errors in the comments. And by error I don't mean disagreement.
My search begins with looking for a new church after moving back to Texas. We visited several of the nearby churches like the kind we normally have attended.
There were several threads of thought going through my head like worldliness, authority and authenticity.
Historically I come from a family raised in the church of Christ, a very small conservative denomination that doesn't use musical instruments. My parents left that church when I was a child and went to its split off denomination the disciples of Christ. So I was raised in a very liberal church which I loved because of summer camp. We moved a lot so I was always in a new school, but summer camp was always in the same place with the same people. So church was a source of continuity and comfort for me. It was not however a rock of doctrine. The only thing that they would say is that there is probably a God and only the nice things in the bible really applied to him/her. We sang 60s protest songs as camp songs.
So anyway, my family left the church of Christ but the church of Christ never really left my family in the sense that a lot of its assumptions were brought with us.
At the same time as I was in the disciples of Christ, I was involved in the new age edgar cayce type stuff, think reincarnation, so was somewhat confused, and a lot obnoxious.
My uncle who now lives with me started praying for my father to return to a Christ centered faith, which he did and I soon followed him. The most, shall we say orthodox church I knew of was the southern Baptists. They at least thought the bible was true and would say the name of Jesus. They didn't mind being thought dim for being Christians.
So I was ordained and pastored a small church. I then moved to Saudi Arabia and joined a western expatriate house church.  I shared in the pastoral duties there. It seemed that denomination labels meant less when surrounded by Islam and any Christian there was family.
After that my worst church experience was with a CMA church where I learned a lot about how to not be a good member. I was awful and I ask any of you who went through it with me to forgive me.
I joined a Church of God church in Sicily and did a better job of not being the pastor and supporting the man who was.
That was the last church I was really a member of.
I will talk about orthodoxy in the next installment.

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