The 50 Year Journey To Orthodoxy

On April 12th, 2006 I celebrated my 50th birthday. Several of my closest friends were able to make their way to Tennessee to join me personally while several others called or sent greetings and congratulations. It was a wonderful time of hope and gratefulness for the preceding years. Much was put into perspective. Ten days later, on April 22, 2006, Holy Saturday, I was chrismated into the Eastern Orthodox Church. "So what's a good former Southern Baptist boy doing in a place this? And after 50 years of life shouldn't you know better?...by the way what is the Eastern Orthodox Church?" I have yet to meet one person in casual conversation who knows what the Orthodox Church is. I always give this 60 second explanation. "The Orthodox Church is the original church of the Apostles. There is the Roman Catholic church in the west and then there is the Orthodox Church in the east. The Orthodox church has over 250 million members and is the second largest Christian group on the planet although there are currently only about 6 million members in the United States. For 1054 years there was only one united church on the planet with five main locations, Rome (Italy), Constantinople (Turkey), Jerusalem (Palestine), Antioch (Syria),and Alexandria (Egypt), each pastored by a Bishop. Then the Bishop of the Roman church in the west claimed he had full authority and jurisdiction over the whole church. This unprecedented move was not well received by the rest of the church in the geographical east. The churches in the east remained in communion and unity while the Roman church in the west broke from that unity and became an independent body- the Roman Catholic Church. All existing protestant denominations, some 25,000 of them in the United States alone, extend out of the Reformation period almost 600 years after the Schism."

Recently one of my five daughters asked me of our move to Orthodoxy. I told her I have been asking the same question of God since I was 17, "Where is the church?" That desire to find and be a part of the true church has led me on a path with many forks and deadends. From Baptist, to Independent Bible Churches, to Charismatic Churches, to the Jewish Synogogues, to Messianic Fellowships, to the Charismatic Episcopal Church, and to the Roman Catholic Church. My puzzled Southern Baptist Father once referred to my journey as "the religion of the month" club. Perhaps now that I have traveled this road and am familiar with the paths and the deadends, I can, in some humble way, be a pathguide for others who are coming this way, and coming they are. Seeking evangelicals who, like me, have no idea or concept that they were born into a religious world with doctrines and practices that look very little like the church of our fathers. I have a degree in Religion from a Southern Baptist University and yet not once in any of my studies was I required to read or even informed of the writings of the Early Church Fathers. These were the men who formed and shaped the church, who knew and were ordained by the Apostles themselves, who continued to pastor the churches of Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the other disciples after their deaths. In fact I was advised against reading anything other than that which was contained within the pages of the bible, the mantra being "sola scriptura", the bible alone. To look at church history or "tradition" was not necessary. The day I decided to consider what men such as Ignatius, Clement, Iraneus, and Justin Martr wrote, preached, and shed their blood to preserve, was the day my religion was ruined. But MY religion needed to be ruined, for it was not the faith of our fathers. Could it be that my protestant university knew that if I read the writings of those so close to the apostles that I would discover a different church, a different doctrine, a different shape of worship, a different history than was being espoused in the institutions and churches throughout evangelical protestantism which was birthed only 400 years prior? God forbid. Ignorance is much more easily accepted than intentional deception.

So come on in. Let us reason together. But I will tell you right now that your closely held doctrines of the church, authority, salvation, the eucharist, veneration of Mary, baptism, shapes and forms of worship, music, gifts of the spirit, and many other things will be challenged. You might get uncomfortable, angry or afraid. You may even feel sorrow for me personally, that I am so deceived. At the very least, let your concern for the salvation of my soul prompt you to join in the discussion on this BLOG. In the mean time I will continue to step deeper into the faith of our fathers, the Orthodox Christian Church, with peace and rest. It has been a long Journey and I am so thankful that I am finally home.

Important UPDATE June 30, 2009
Read: "Why We Left... Where We Went"