The Road North

Welcome to my new blog, From SoC to Points North. I am the author of the blog, TH in SoC. But while I am still TH, I am no longer in SoC, having moved a thousand miles north from Southern California a year ago.

I suppose this is a second phase of my recovery from an abusive church experience. The first phase culminated in the writing of my first blog, TH in SoC. It was with a great deal of pathos and not a little anger that I wrote that blog, and though I put a lot of research into several of the posts, it was much more than just an academic study. Rather, finishing that blog gave me the sort of release and quiet that comes from having just successfully concluded a long fist fight. I hope I caused an appropriate amount of trouble for some perpetrators who badly needed troubling.

But now, it's time for me to take a little care of me. Chiefly, it's time for me to take some time to seriously figure out what the Christian faith is really about, since the teaching of the Bible was severely distorted in my old abusive church in order to serve the ends of the church leaders. I haven't abandoned the faith; I am still a pilgrim. But over the course of years my compass was smashed and someone scribbled in magic marker all over my map. It's time to sort things out. That sorting-out process is likely to be a very large subject. And I want to connect with other pilgrims.

I guess that means it may be time now to start looking for a church. If I confine myself to churches within walking distance of my house, three interesting choices come to mind. There is a very small church composed of people whose average age must be around 65 or 70, people who probably own collections of old vinyl records of Andy Griffith or Jim Nabors singing old Gospel favorites. I don't know how well I'd fit in there, but I don't think I'd be in much danger from stupid church games. Then there are at least two Russian churches nearby. Once a few weeks ago I saw a bunch of Russians walking to one of the churches, and I asked one of them about resources for learning Russian. His reply was that if I joined their church, they would teach me Russian. But I don't know if I want to pay that kind of price for a language lesson. Something about the word "join" makes me sweat a little, even now. Lastly, there is a wanna-be "Purpose-Driven" church within easy walking distance, complete with praise band and jeans-clad cool pastor. I'm definitely not going there. I think I'll probably try out the elderly congregation tomorrow.