My mother was born and raised on a Minnesota farm, in a faithful Baptist home her entire life (until meeting my dad at least). My grandparents were 100% Bible-believing Baptist through and through. My grandmother played the organ just about every sunday, my grandfather was a deacon and they both sang duets together at times. There was no dancing. There was no raising hands. There was no clapping. There was no crying. There were only hymns to sing. There were no guitars or drums. They didn’t even believe it was right to go to movies! Altho watching TV was perfectly fine. I think this actually still applies today… of course looking back now, I would say that staying away from mainstream entertainment is probably great idea.
After about 14 years away from home, my mother was heading back to the very farm she was raised on. My Grandfather had put his faith in Jesus as a teenager and joined the local Baptist church in rural Minnesota. My grandmother was from a small farm in Iowa originally but attended Northwestern Bible College in ST. Paul, MN. It was during her college years that she found a church to serve at about an hour south of St. Paul and that’s where the two met and married.
So this is what we were returning to after a long leave of absence from the Baptist church. I’m sure this was a big reason for my grandparents inviting us. Even tho we had “radically” shifted our theological thinking, that rural Baptist church was still every bit as important to my spiritual walk as any other church. Of course, I was just along for the ride and I would say at this point while I firmly believed in the Bible, my own personal faith was still not too serious yet.
Not long after arriving in Minnesota my parents found work and even found a place to live about 45 minutes north of the farm. I had already started school however. I actually ended up being the 3rd generation to attend that small town school. 9th grade was my first introduction to public school and fortunately it was at a pretty small school. Regardless, it was still a culture shock… moving across the country and then attending public school for the first time. After living on the farm for a year however, I ended up moving up to a larger city to live with my parents and was then thrust into a much larger public school.
I felt like I had nothing in common with 99.9% of the other students there. I was an outsider. I didn’t know anyone. I never felt like I fit in, altho I didn’t let that bother me too much. By now, I was plenty used to being an only child most of my life and was very comfortable being on my own and in my own world.
After spending that first year in Minnesota back in “Baptistville”, my parents finally landed at a small Assembly of God church. We once again made a new home. We quickly made endearing connections with the pastor and his family along with several other families. I began attending the youth group and was quickly accepted there.
While I somehow managed to survive 4 years of public school, I rather disliked it and wanted nothing to do with it really. The church youth group became my escape. After graduating I never again saw anyone from my high school class. My friends at church were all that really mattered to me.
It was at this AOG church that I really finally felt like I belonged. I was actually part of the family. I felt a sense of connection with the Youth Pastor and with the Senior Pastor’s son and many others my age.
I had been pretty well sheltered from “worldly” music up to that point, after all Rock and Roll was of the devil. So I was not really familiar with too much popular music and I wasn’t exposed to much of any christian music that I found interesting either. One year I remember getting a cassette tape player (Sony Walkman) for Christmas as music was now becoming a very serious interest during my early high school years.
It was during my 10th grade year that I started watching MTV and paying more attention to the radio. I made a friend in the 10th grade at school that was actually a christian. It was his first year at this school too and he was even originally from California like I was. He was a year older than me and very into music as well. He introduced me to all kinds of both secular and “christian” rock music. I even started going to christian rock concerts with him in downtown Minneapolis!
Somewhere during 10th or 11th grade I got a bigger stereo and tape player and eventually bought a used CD player to hook up to it. I was listening to music constantly. I couldn’t get enough, specifically all things guitar.
My dad had actually played acoustic guitar a little bit but he hadn’t had one in years. Somewhere along the way someone ended up given us a crappy old nylon string acoustic guitar, so I decided to start trying to play it. I got frustrated pretty quick with it and determined to get myself an electric guitar. I think it was my senior year in high school that I finally got an electric guitar and a small practice amp and took a handful of lessons. The youth pastor at church had always led worship with his acoustic guitar during youth group on Wednesday nights but was trying to get more kids involved with the worship band. After a little bit, I worked up enough confidence to start playing at church and then did so pretty regularly the summer after I graduated from High School.
I believe it was during my Junior or Senior year in High School that I finally decided to get baptized. After all these years I never really had the opportunity or else was too scared for whatever reason. Finally I was comfortable enough with the people, I was feeling closer to God than ever before and the time was right. I felt that my faith was becoming my own. I was becoming my own person and making my own decisions so I wanted to get baptized.
Some people claim to have an immediate change or some kind of emotional response to either coming to Christ or to being baptized but I don’t recall any physical or emotional change. I’m not really an emotional person tho, so maybe its just how some people react to life-changing events.
Following that very big summer with my friends after graduating from High School, I was off to college a little over an hour away from home.
to be continued…
