To this day, I am still very thankful that my dad and mom raised me with a belief in God and the understanding that Sunday's were intended for church. Many kids might think that it’s a chore to go to church on Sundays- every Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., but in fact, I enjoyed it.
Sundays were the days I got to see my friends and the days I knew I for sure had no chores to do (haha), but Sunday was the day that I got to go to Sunday school, and sing.
Of course, every church does their Sundays different and has different values, but that’s something I appreciated about my church.
I grew up in the Apostolic Christian Church, a pretty well-known denomination, especially for the town I grew up in. Throughout middle school and high school I heard the term “Apo’s,” and “A.C.’s,” to refer to someone that attended the church I attended.
If you haven’t heard of this denomination, I will enlighten you.
It’s a conservative church that isn’t a big fan of change. As much as a lot of churches have gone to contemporary music and dress, the Apostolic Church still holds hymns dear to their heart and it is known that you wear a dress or skirt on Sundays. The church itself has great morals and values it upholds that can be backed by the Bible, and you are guaranteed to hear the truth when you go to a service. The church also has a great sense of community and what it meant to be there for each other and always does the best it can to help people out in the community.
But attending the Apostolic Church and being a member of the Apostolic Church are two different things.
If you become a member of this church, there are many guidelines they ask you to follow. As I said, this is a conservative church, so the guidelines were somewhat different than you’d expect. Some people called them “rules”, however, they are a set of expectations they ask you to follow if you decide this is the path you want to choose to continue pursuing your relationship with God.
I, myself, never became a member of the church, not to say I didn't think about it. I didn’t feel that I would be able to agree to all the guidelines and didn’t want to pick and choose.
I would be lying if I said there weren’t ever times that I didn’t like the church I grew up in, because there were definitely times I did not like it.
Through some of this, I started exploring other churches, specifically more contemporary churches. The kinds of church, where they had a band, and they read NIV, and all the people wore jeans (for the most part).
Exploring other churches was good for me because it gave me a new appreciation for my home church. However, it also gave me a sense of what I wanted in a church.
The most important thing to me, first and foremost, was that it taught the truth. My home church was a prime example of this. Secondly, I wanted to relate to the message- which was often hard for me at my church. Worship was also a big deal to me because that was a main way I felt I connected to God, and I found that hymns did not bring that connection for me. Overall, my exploration made me realize that the Apostolic church was not where I was meant to be.
Does this mean that the Apostolic Church is not a good church? Of course not- it’s just not the church for me. It worked for some of my family, it works for a lot of my friends, and a lot of people from my community, and I know that it is the kind of church that God is the foundation of. I was thankful for Sunday School, and SOS on Wednesday evenings, lunch on Sundays with my friends and church picnics, going to invites, and being a part of a genuine community.
But as great as it is, what I’m saying is that it’s okay it didn’t work for me. I think that God truly cares that we go to a church where it preaches the truth and allows us to be with other believers, and of course, allows us to grow in our faith; not that it is some certain church.
The Apostolic Church will always be my childhood church, and the church I have a lot of appreciation for. It raised me with a sense of community, and instilled in me some of my morals and values, and it helped me with my relationship with God.
