"Wow, There are a lot of different beliefs out there"

It's been a long time since I wrote on this blog.  (Probably not a good thing that every other post starts with that line.)  I'm hoping to begin writing more regularly but life is always crazy, so who knows.

"Wow, there are a lot of different beliefs out there."  This statement was repeated to me multiple times as I talked to a fellow at the gym yesterday.  He is a very friendly older man who I have had the pleasure to talk with a number of times about a variety of topics.  Like a lot of older people in Johnstown, he is a retired steel worker and a lifelong devout Catholic.  After he found out about my varying educational and career background and that I am currently a pastor in town, he became very inquisitive as to what my church believes and practices. Throughout our conversation, he was blown away by the vast difference, especially in practice, between his traditional Catholic church and my very non-traditional Protestant church.  It was like I was opening a whole new world to him that he had never studied or experienced.

That conversation reminded just how much I can take my beliefs for granted.  They have been practiced and ingrained in me for so long, it becomes assumed in my mind that this is the way things are done.  However, there is a vast range of beliefs and practices in our city, in our country, and in our world.  Even the realm of Christendom has many different flavors.  So, why believe what you believe?  Why practice those beliefs in a certain way?

In Matthew 16, Peter is confronted by Jesus with the two most important questions anyone, no matter what belief system, must answer in life.  First, Jesus asks Peter who he believes Jesus is.  Essentially, Jesus is confronting him with the question, "Who is God?"  Second, after Peter's answer to the question, Jesus tells Peter who Peter is. This gives Peter the answer to the second most important question, "Who am I in relation to who God is?"

Everything else in our worldview stems from those two questions.  Why is the world the way it is?  Why do people act like they do?  What is the purpose of my life?  What happens after I die?  All these questions can only be answered in light of who we believe God is and who we are in relation.  However, many people either overlook those questions or blindly follow what they have always believed, not even knowing the foundation from which those beliefs come.

Over the past six months, I had the opportunity to go through the process to be a licensed minister in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches.  This required a thorough study of what I believe and why I believe it. It was some of the most intense studying I have done in my life but I came out more thoroughly convinced of what I believe than ever in my life.  Over the next couples months, hopefully, I want to share with you what I learned.

I'll confess upfront, I'm not a theologian or an academic.  I'm just a normal guy serving Jesus as a pastor.  A guy who gets pranked by the students in the youth group and swarmed by little kids after the Sunday morning service.  I don't have advanced degree, years of study, or a megachurch.  Simply, I love Jesus and people and, hopefully, through what I write I can connect the two.

This the great thing about the Bible.  It is so profoundly deep that men can devote their life to studying it and not reach the end but it, also, presents truths so clear and simple that children can grasp them and know God.  God wants you to know who he is and know who you are in relation to him.  Join me as I examine what I believe and why I believe, then answer the questions for yourself.