In Need of Answers....

Today, I received the monthly newsletter from the church that I used to attend back home. In it, I see three announcements for the churches celebration of 125^th anniversary for the churches founding. If you do not know, I stopped attending this church for a couple of different reasons.

I wanted Dual-Membership and the church that I attended back home did not like that; well the way I went about wanting to join a church with dual membership.

Apparently, I don’t believe the same beliefs of the church back home.

Apparently, I “put down” the church when I posted the following on Facebook: "it's when a sinner makes the Lord his choice, that's when the Angels rejoice!" and beliefs that if "anyone who confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead will be saved." Today, two children of God will obey God's Word in baptism at a church back home and I am so excited to know these two young adults. Thank God for being with prayers for them to come to God. However, I feel that baptism is NOT necessary for salvation. NOTE: Not trying to be controversial with this statues as I so seem to be.

Finally, with the sharing of this video, I was told that I do not know anything about religion and I have changed.

So when I finally made my decision that I had to make of keeping my membership up at the church that I attend now and then remove my membership from that church, I sent this letter of how I felt about it all and asked for my membership to be removed:

In this life things happen. Things that we cannot explain except by the power of God and I find a situation that was evolved around me to have been just that but let me explain more.

Due to me obeying God’s will, I asked for dual membership at -------Church-the church that I attend while in Berea-on February 26^th. ------- Church offers a dual membership policy at their church for anyone (mainly college students) who do not want to leave their home churches membership yet still wants to be a member at ------ Church. I had been thinking about making this decision for a while but was planning on making the decision upon more discussion with the pastor there and Brother ------- to think about it. However, I decided this was meant for me when participating in their annual Men’s Day through the Holy Spirit’s work.

I was excited for this as the Spirit led me to do such a thing and felt that this was what God wanted for my life. However, a controversy broke out.

Due to beliefs here (back home), some find that dual membership is wrong as a person cannot belong to two different churches especially being two different denominations. I find this mindset to be wrong, but want to show respect to the people whom I still love and adore and think as family whenever I am in Berea by not causing them any more pain.

I have thought long and hard over such a decision of where I want my membership to belong. Here-my home church-or do I want to belong to a church where I will be attending for the next three years? A decision has been made out of respect, love, and honor to the people involved.

My decision to heed to God’s will has not only affected me but this church as well and therefore I feel that I will ask that my membership be removed from --------- Church to where I can have membership at ----------- Church as dual membership is not possible at the moment.

I love each and every person here, member and non-member. I pray for each one of you daily and I hope that you pray for me too. I want to be able to feel welcomed and I want to be called family when I return home in the summer and breaks.

Thank you for supporting me in everything over the years and thank you for being a great church to come home to over breaks. I am sorry if I upset people here in making a decision to have dual membership but I wanted to be able to serve in both churches and make decisions at both churches. I love and respect everyone here greatly and I ask that you will continue to love and respect me as I go through this tough decision and become a member at a sister congregation.

God Bless.

I soon got this request from the pastor of the church back home:

MATT, IN RESPONSE TO YOUR LETTER WE RECEIVED ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS, WE WOULD LIKE TO REPLY. NO ONE AT *** CARED THAT YOU CHOSE TO JOIN -------, THE PROBLEM BEING IS THE WAY YOU WENT ABOUT DOING IT!
MATTHEW, WE FELT IT WAS WRONG FOR U TO GET ON THE INTERNET AND ANNOUNCE THAT U HAD JOINED
***, YOU DID NOT HAVE THE COURESTY TO TALK TO US OR ANYONE ELSE AT ***.WE FELT WE WERE CLOSER THAN THAT. WE WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND BUT FEEL THAT THE BOND IS BROKEN.
YOU NOW HAVE A NEW FAMILY, AND A NEW CHURCH, AND NEW BELIEFS THAT ARE DIFFERENT FROM OUR BELIEFS.
WHEN U WROTE ABOUT [the two children from that church] BEING BAPTIZED, U SAID U DIDN'T THINK U NEEDED TO BE BAPTIZED TO BE SAVED.
THOSE THAT READ IT ON THE INTERNET,'' INCLUDING US'' FELT IT WAS A PUT DOWN OF WHAT WE AT *** STAND FOR. ARE WE ANY BETTER THAN CHRIST HIMSELF WHO HAD NO SIN BUT WANTED TO PLEASE OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN--MATT 3:13-17
NO ONE ASKED U AT *** TO LEAVE AND JOIN ANOTHER CHURCH, U MADE THAT CHOICE. U ALSO STATED TO THE WORLD THAT U NO LONGER BELIEVE LIKE WE DO AT ***--READ 1ST COR 12: 24-25.
THE ELDERS AND I GRANT YOUR REQUEST TO JOIN ANOTHER CHURCH, AND WE WILL BE REMOVING YOUR MEMBERSHIP FROM *** AT THIS TIME. OUR PRAYER IS THAT GOD WILL BLESS U IN YOUR CHRISTIAN WALK. GOD BLESS

P.S. FELL FREE TO COME WORSHIP WITH US ANYTIME, AS ------ AND I DO WHE WE ATTEND *** AS FORMER MEMBERS

I then responded with this:

Upon reading these words, one thing is still unclear to me. In the letter, I put that I was hoping that we were still a family. I will ask plain and clear: Am I still part of y'alls family? Is it still [our family]? I know that it may not be the same, but I want things to be the same before all of this? I want to be able to come home and then come to my second home. I want to be able to be a part of your life. I still care for you both, deeply. I thought that I put that in the letter but let me say it again, I love you deeply, miss you greatly, and want you both to be a part of my life miserably. You said that you want to be my friend, but I want you to be my Mom and Dad-a friend as well as my mother and father. Let me also say this again, I was not trying to put down anyone; I think words were taken out of context. Also, I may have a "new family," "new church" but my thoughts are not new just a different outlook. As far as putting a label on anything, I am not a Baptist-it may seem that way, but I am a Christian who just happens to worship at baptist church. So, again, am I still your Son or am I being cut off from the family?

Just a few minutes later, I was sent this e-mail:

MATTHEW-You are still our friend, but as we said the bond we had has been broken! As far as the family goes, your family supported you in your decisions. You need to belong to your family! THIS IS A GOOD THING. Sorry, but we feel you need to be with your own family. We feel since things are not the same, it is better for you and better for us. We pray that the Lord will work with you and help you with all the confusing things you need to work out. We did not take you from our family, you made that choice! god bless!!!

Reader, I hope that you have followed this story but now my question is this: After going through all of this, do I return to the home church that did not like my opinions for the 125^th anniversary of the church? Or do I do not? I have until the end of the month to decide and I am now asking you for your respectful opinions.

In need of answers.

~Matthew