what's my church and why

lol - I guess I'm doing requests.

I am currently attending Arlington Chinese Church. I'll tell the story:

The church that my parents attend does not have anyone with which I can relate. Besides that, my parent's church is decidedly anti-reformed; making it very difficult for me to sit through a sermon. A lot of talk of the prominence of man's free will and I feel that they aren't really reading the Bible. I just don't understand how someone can trust God if they don't think He's in control. How does prophecy work if God is not orchestrating events? How can you pray "dear Lord please have tommy come to know you" if you do not believe that God can make someone know Him? or how can someone pray "let me pass this test" if God cannot control the test-writer to put easy questions or control the test-taker to write the correct answer? What's the point to prayer if God can only do what man allows him to do? How is that God sovereign? And then I found a whole stash of books in the closet once titled "The Dark Side of Calvinism" and I just rolled my eyes, because I knew none of them had studied Calvinism. Then there's the pastor's wife....well, she basically controls the shots. She keeps her husband in line. In I Timothy 3, it says that deacons must rule their households well as a requirement for service. I think this applies to pastors as well, right? I think if churches really feared God they would take this passage into consideration more often and not allow many pastor's to serve until they got their kids in line. My parent's pastor's kids aren't that bad, except that the oldest is a professing non-believer. And the mother has her running Sunday School for the kids. Make sense? I'm friends with the girl and have told her how puzzled I've been that her mother knows that she isn't a Christian and yet still makes her teach Sunday School; to  which the girl replied in agreement. This was not the church for me.

I saw this guy leading a group of people in prayer once at school. So I decided that I wanted to know why they just suddenly started praying. I asked. He said that they were a student-lead Bible study that met once a week and did I want to join them. I did. But I asked if it was just a coincidence that they were all Asian. He said that they were based out of ACC (mentioned above). I started going to the group. It's not highly structured, but I've made some interesting acquaintances and some good friends. I've never really had an interest in China though. But once we were invited to a special event at ACC and the speaker was overtly Calvinist to my delight, having not heard a good sermon since moving to Texas. So, I decided to stay. I had friends there, and even if the church wasn't Calvinist the speakers tend to be. ACC is currently trying to find an English-service pastor, so right now a group of men take turns. I really like it. I'm not a member - mostly because I don't see myself being there for forever. Maybe when someone approaches me and says "hey Lauren, you've been coming here for quite a while, you should become a member" then I'll become a member. I still have membership back in my baptist church in MS.

I've stopped attending the Bible study on campus. But I still go to church. I go to a Japanese Bible study (I am and always have been very interested in Japan) as well as BSM, so I don't feel that I'm lacking in the Bible-study department. And I also have my own personal devotion time. -just mentioning it in case you think I was neglecting the body or the Bible. The Japanese group is more for good Christian Japanese fellowship than for Bible-study (for me) and BSM is something that I hope to take a very active role in when it starts up again next semester.

I think once I get more fluent in Japanese I will start attending the Japanese church here. But for now I want to stick with my friends at ACC. I don't think it's radical that I'm there because first, it's better than the other church, and second, I'm with my friends. If I had decided to go there on a whim, that might be radical. But when a place is called "Chinese Church" I don't think one could expect that many Americans would feel welcomed there. But once you get inside, you realize that you are welcomed even though they think you are weird.

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request lines are now open....