At the Lutheran congregation I grew up at, but am not now a member of, there was an interesting article in their newsletter, about the few people left in the congregation who were members in 1938, when their current building was constructed. My mother was six then, and remembers, however vaguely, the previous building. She’s been a member of that congregation all her life, baptized, confirmed, married there, and so on.
Not many people stay in the same place like that, all their lives. We move and join somewhere else. We drop out entirely. We switch denominations/faiths.
I’m curious to know if anyone on the Dope is like my mother, and has stayed put, so I’m starting a poll. For those of you who are here for the food, I will post a recipe too.
[spoiler]Chocolate Pecan Pie
contributed by Baker
7/8 cup chocolate chips(5-1/3 ounces)
8 teaspoons butter
7 tablespoons sugar
1-1/3 cups clear corn syrup
4 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2/3 cups chopped pecans
one unbaked 9-inch pie shell
Melt the chips and butter in a double boiler, or microwave them on medium, stirring occasionally to ensure a smooth mixture. Take care not to over heat. Stir the chocolate into a mix of the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until just set in the center. [/spoiler]
I went from Russian Orthodox, Original Ritualist to the ELCA. After joining the ELCA I decided to become truly Lutheran and switched congregations. You really can’t call yourself “Lutheran” until you have a congregation and a congregation I used to go to until it got dumb.
I’m in the same parish I was born and baptized into, though I’ve spent a number of years away due to being in other states (I’ve since moved back home). Does that count?
I’m Episcopalian, but was raised Missouri Synod, very conservative, switched to ELCA, before joining where I am now.
The ELCA is in full agreement with the Episcopal church, and one of our clergy is ELCA. He himself was raised Serbian Orthodox. Rev. P was a military chaplain for years, and a West Point graduate.
I grew up in the Methodist Church in Louisiana and liked it fine. The youth group (UMYF) brought me lots of good experiences during my teenage years with regular outings, camping trips, parties and other wholesome activities. My ex-wife was a traditional Massachusetts Italian-American Catholic but wanted to get out during the Boston sex scandals so we joined the local Episcopal Church (that is as complicated as showing up to a service and saying you are now a member as long as you are already a baptized Christian).
My daughters were baptized in the Episcopal Church and we had lots of good experiences with the Episcopal Church as well. It is part church and part social club. I don’t make much of an effort to fit in church services into my life these days but I still consider myself both a Methodist and Episcopalian. That isn’t hard to reconcile because the Methodist church is about as generic main-line Protestant as they come and the Episcopal Church is even more liberal than that so that combination does not create any contradictions.
I grew up non-denominational and went to non-denom Christian (not “evangelical”) churches until my young adulthood. Then dropped out for awhile. Then my husband and I went to the local First Baptist Church (American Baptist) for a while. Then dropped out for a while. Then joined the Catholic church at a fairly liberal parish/diocese. I really liked it and we went for quite awhile, but then we stopped going to Mass regularly. Now I haven’t been in a couple of years. I haven’t lost my faith or anything, I just got out of the habit of going to church.
I grew up United Methodist, dropped out a while and started attending a United Church of Christ for a few years. Now I’m atheist and don’t have any special group activity like church.
I technically am still a member of the same church I was born in to, and live in the same neighborhood I was born in to. But I haven’t been to church there in a while. I still get and read the newsletter and feel loyalty towards the church but I am just not a church-going person.
Our pastor got divorced when I was 11 and even though it’s just a run-of-the-mill Lutheran church, a bunch of people freaked the fuck out and left the congregation. A lot of them were families with kids I had grown up with. And then some time later the church decided to expand the building in order to [I don’t know]. A bunch more people freaked the fuck out and left. I actually came back at this time and helped with the physical building, and got to know some of the “new” folks (like, new since the past 10 years).
I would go to the church with my mom on Christmas but she went back to being Catholic so I haven’t been in “my” church building for some time now. I started going to the Catholic Christmas mass at the Eastern European church in the Slavic Village in Cleveland for Christmas with my mom and aunt.
I feel like if I started going to church again on the reg, it would be my same old church. But I stopped enjoying going to church services a long while ago. Cuz I am awful.
Official church membership can be a funny thing. When I was a member of my current church as a kid, it was as part of Mom’s “and family”, not on my own. When I moved, I officially signed up as a member of my new church, but never, um, un-signed-up from my original one. Nowadays, I’m still going to church with my mom, but I’m not in the same household any more. And while I tried to officially sign up as a member on my own, the paperwork kept getting lost in the shuffle and I gave up on it… except that despite not officially being a member, I am officially a lector and eucharistic minister, and serve as such frequently.
I am a member of the same congregation I was bat mitzvahed at. But like chronos, I was “and family” as a child. Still, I do remember three separate sanctuaries. The current one is the nicest.
There was no option for me. I was raised a very regular (multiple times a week) churchgoer in the Assemblies of God, but converted to Judaism as an adult and have since been a member of the same shul - inasmuch as I still pay the annual membership dues, but I haven’t attended services there in a number of years since my rabbi died and the new rabbi made six overtly racist or sexist comments in his first dozen services including an uber-aggressive and regressive comment about women’s extra helping of sinfulness during Kol Nidre (Yom Kippur) which was the last straw.
My mother tells me about reading Bible stories to me when I was five; my response was “Seems like tall tales to me”.
Nevertheless, I was baptized in the Catholic church in which my mom and dad were married. But we moved around a lot, and Mom got sick of the status of women in the RCC, so we church-shopped. When we finally got to Atlanta, where they, and I, still live, we found a United Methodist church we liked and joined that. I was confirmed there, and did MYF (hated) and the Appalachian Service Project (enjoyed).
But in 1992 I started periodically attending Mass at a Catholic church, and finally in 2000 went through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults - the series of classes that end with confirmation as a Roman Catholic.
So I was a Catholic, and officially, still am. But I stopped going to Mass out of disgust at the pedophile priest scandal, and during that time admitted that I just didn’t, and never had, believed in God.
So I am now, as I pretty much always have been as an adult, a secular humanist.
I’ll try to keep the description of this journey short:
I was raised Catholic. Was a member of two different Catholic parishes, due to moving at age 10.
After graduating from Catholic high school, decided I was agnostic, and spent several years without going to church, before finding my faith. Was a fundamentalist for a while, and was a member of a church in my college town (CMA). However, I came to realize that I disagreed with fundamentalism in many areas, and drifted away from conservative Christianity.
After moving to Chicago, started dating a woman who was (and still is) ELCA Lutheran. When we got married, I joined her church.
Changed ELCA congregations when we moved from one suburb to another. Dropped out of that congregation due to unhappiness with the congregation’s leadership.
Became friends with some people who were members of a very cool United Methodist church, and eventually joined that church.
So, I’ve formally been a member of 6 congregations / parishes over the course of my life, in 4 different denominations.
I’ve changed denominations, and therefore congregations
is option “I’ve changed denominations, stayed with the same congregation” even possible?
Would that be the entire church changing denominations…
So the Local First Baptist Church , decides that it is now Church of the Latter Day Saints?
I’m not sure I have ever heard of that happening. I would assume it would be very isolated cases, at best.
Has anyone here ever known this to happen?
My family belonged to a Conservative Synogogue when I was born. We moved when I was 6, but stayed at the old shut until my older brother had his Bar Mitzvah when I was 8 and then switched to another Conservative shul.
My wife’s family belonged to a Reform Synogogue and I joined there back in the mid 90s, been there ever since.
