brjoon1021
Puritan Board Freshman
I have an Uncle who has been ignoring his duties to fellowship for about ten years now due to a problem with his last church. He is not reformed. He would best be described as Restorationist / Latter Rain / Pentecostal etc... but, especially disgruntled. I know that a solid Reformed (I hope), Lutheran or Anglican (also better than a local charismatic Appalachian-type church) is what he needs.
I would like to facilitate in whatever way possible his re-integration into the visible church. He is surely invisible now :<
I am here to ask if you guys can help me in finding a solid church. There are too many reformed, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc... denominations for me to know about enough of them to go to their respective denominational websites and do the "find a church, plug in your zip code" method.
He went to a church that had been influenced by the Shepherding movement. It was pretty legalistic too. No movies, no alcohol FOR SURE, secular music made you "worldly". I even heard my uncle say that someone in the church's nephew had "worldly hair" (that just made me laugh again). For a time, I desperately wanted to be in ministry in my uncle's former church, but was prevented by our benevolent GOD. I thank GOD for that. I can't tell you how freeing the reformation has been for me. It is fantastic to get together with the Elders and Pastors of my church over beer, wine, cigars and pipes. And... I can actually have issues; I don't have to be triumphant all of the time. My uncle needs the same. He needs to be around normal folk who contribute to the world not those who think it best to try to cloister themselves off from the world as much as possible because "we are in the world but not of it (of course)".
Specifically, he is around Waverly, OH. Larger nearby cities are Chillicothe, Ohio and Portsmouth Ohio. Perhaps there are near enough West Virginia or Kentuck fellowships ? He used to drive an hour and fifteen minutes, each way, (twice!) every Sunday to be indoctrinated with restorationist teachings in Columbus so I suppose a good church within an hour is probably reasonable for him. We were fed such a steady diet of "we are God's people" that it will be hard for him to even consider darkening the door of a denominational church. We were taught that each denomination is where some of God's people chose to stay put out of comfort rather than moving on with the congregation as truths and practices were being restored to the sickly church.
Your help would be much appreciated.
I would like to facilitate in whatever way possible his re-integration into the visible church. He is surely invisible now :<
I am here to ask if you guys can help me in finding a solid church. There are too many reformed, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc... denominations for me to know about enough of them to go to their respective denominational websites and do the "find a church, plug in your zip code" method.
He went to a church that had been influenced by the Shepherding movement. It was pretty legalistic too. No movies, no alcohol FOR SURE, secular music made you "worldly". I even heard my uncle say that someone in the church's nephew had "worldly hair" (that just made me laugh again). For a time, I desperately wanted to be in ministry in my uncle's former church, but was prevented by our benevolent GOD. I thank GOD for that. I can't tell you how freeing the reformation has been for me. It is fantastic to get together with the Elders and Pastors of my church over beer, wine, cigars and pipes. And... I can actually have issues; I don't have to be triumphant all of the time. My uncle needs the same. He needs to be around normal folk who contribute to the world not those who think it best to try to cloister themselves off from the world as much as possible because "we are in the world but not of it (of course)".
Specifically, he is around Waverly, OH. Larger nearby cities are Chillicothe, Ohio and Portsmouth Ohio. Perhaps there are near enough West Virginia or Kentuck fellowships ? He used to drive an hour and fifteen minutes, each way, (twice!) every Sunday to be indoctrinated with restorationist teachings in Columbus so I suppose a good church within an hour is probably reasonable for him. We were fed such a steady diet of "we are God's people" that it will be hard for him to even consider darkening the door of a denominational church. We were taught that each denomination is where some of God's people chose to stay put out of comfort rather than moving on with the congregation as truths and practices were being restored to the sickly church.
Your help would be much appreciated.
