Thursday, April 12, 2007

Thursday 13 #14

13 (Sometimes Not-So) Normal Questions I get about being an Apostolic Pentecostal

  1. Are you the only white person at your church? My friend, Madison, asked me this. She was under the impression that, by the way I described my church as the commonly known "holy-rolling, chandelier swinging Christians" that I went to a, her words not mine, "black Jesus church". She asked if my church services were like the people in the movie "Fighting Temptations". (Great movie by the way) The answer to this is no. We do have a lot of people of all races in the UPCI.
  2. Are you Amish/Jewish? I would hope that this would be self-explanitory, as I am blogging on a computer. No. I am neither. I have indoor plumbing, computer, electric lights, an iPod, and best of all, Double Bacon Cheesburgers. This gives the Jewish kid at my school fits, as his grandma goes to church with me and he is convinced that I am bound to the Mosaic law and he's going to eventually convert me to Judaism. I love me some pork chops.
  3. Does your church speak in tongues? Yes. We believe that the "proof", so to speak, of having the infilling of the Holy Spirit is the speaking in other tongues.
  4. Why don't you cut your hair/wear jewelry/wear skirts? I've been looking for the scripture but haven't found it yet. The reason I don't cut my hair or wear jewelry is because of Paul's address to the Corinthians (I think?). He set standards for them including banning the adornment with gold or costly array and he stated that hair was glory unto the Lord and if cut, well, you might as well shave it all off. As for the skirt thing, I'm not quite sure the scriptural basis, but I'm fairly sure that it has something to do with seperation from the world and girls looking like girls, boys looking like boys, etc.
  5. What is your position on living together/sex before marriage? Fornication is wrong. Period. I strongly believe that sex before marriage is wrong. II Corinthians 6:12-20 explains this in detail.
  6. What is your position on homosexuality? My stance on this is different than some. As a christian, I believe that it is a sin. However, I recently had a friend tell me that she was a homosexual. Am I going to shun her? Of course not. If I "disown" her, two things could happen- 1. She will probably have a bad taste in her mouth over Christianity because her Christian friend just blew her off. 2. Who else is going to show her the light of Christ if I don't?
  7. Who goes to heaven? Ask God this question. Personally, I believe that it won't JUST be Apostolic Pentecostals in Heaven. I believe that you should follow Acts 2:38-39, but I'm not going to condemn someone to Hell because they didn't accept it. That's for God to decide, not me.
  8. Why don't you have TV? My father is a minister with the UPCI. Our standards state that ministers should not have television in their home. It is not a biblical issue as far as I know. We do have a monitor, and I am a movie junkie.
  9. Why don't you date outside of other people that are Pentecostal? II Corinthians 6:14-18 The best way outside of this scripture that I can give you is one of my personal reasons that even if I did not believe it was scripturally wrong, I would not date/marry someone of a different faith. This is not me discriminating or anything like that. My reasoning, in part, is due to me wanting to have kids in the future. When I have kids, I don't want the headache of deciding which faith my child is going to be raised with. Plus, there are so many differences between the religions, that I feel that it would cause unnecessary tension between my future spouse and I.
  10. What is the UPCI? It is an organization of Apostolic Pentecostals. There are different ones. The main difference is the standards. Another organization that comes to mind is the ALJC. Same faith, different standards. One of my best friends is ALJC in fact.
  11. How do you baptize? By immersion in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
  12. What is your standings on the Pope? One of the crazier questions. When John Paul died, I had a friend ask me if I had gone into mourning for him. I'm not Catholic. Personally, I think that Benedict or whatever his name is looks like the emperor from Star Wars. But that's just me.
  13. How do you think that communion bread tastes? This is my favorite question. I love communion bread. Especially the matza stuff.

14 comments:

Raggedy said...

Excellent TT!
Thank you for sharing.
Happy TT'ing!

Anonymous said...

I am a Christian and blog about my faith on a regular basis. I very much enjoyed reading about your life and choices.

Thank you for sharing.

I'm all about the lessons learned from my mom & dad (both gone now).

Have a great weekend.

Kimo and Sabi said...

Hey, we likes that matza stuff too, but we is not Apostolic Pentecostal, Jewish, etc. - we is cats. You sound like a nice lady. Do you have cats?

Marie said...

wow!!! very insightful list this week! it's enlightening! i really do learn something new everyday!

MotherT said...

Becky, "you done good"!!! Well, thought out answers!

the lizness said...

Back in the day, me and Pastor K's son used to sneak down to the kitchen after communion service and eat the leftover communion bread ... not so much the grape juice ...

And I love me some pork chops too

Anonymous said...

:o)

My husband's family is Pentacostal. My husband doesn't attend their church but I know enough people from there to only imagine some of the questions you've been asked.

Loved your list

Barbara said...

Excellent post. I'm pentecostal. We recently had a couple that are Messianic Jews to hold a Passover Seder meal at our church. I personally don't care for the bread. But, it does taste a little like unsalted crackers.

Check out my TT

The Muffin said...

K & S- My little brother has a cat. I'm not a big cat person. Sorry.

Lizness- Larissa, Brittany, and I used to do that to. I hate grape juice, so that wasn't an issue.

Shiloh- Oh, this isn't the half of it. I could've done a Thursday 200 on this. lol.

Barbara- Yes, I guess they kinda do. I've never had a Sedar meal. Is it anything like communion?

TopChamp said...

interesting tt. I'm not religious but it is good to find out more about your religion & interpretation of it.

JAM said...

Excellent post Rebecca. I'm not Apostolic Pentecostal, but consider myself pentecostal because I believe that the gifts recieved on the day of pentecost are for us today as well.

You handled all these questions with truth and humor. Great list.

Yeah, Benedict DOES kinda look like the emperor now that you mention it.

Rebecca said...

Good list, I've noticed that people who don't have a lot of experience with religion tend to overexaggerate and think the worst of what church or faith is like.
My TT13 is up at http://anyapples.blogspot.com/

Jess said...

Good list. I have never known anyone who is Pentecostal, so your post was quite informative! I applaud you for being so strong in your faith and expressing yourself so well. You get asked some interesting questions...

Jewel said...

*applause* *applause* Job well-done, Becky! This is why I love your blog and your posting. You just explain things so well and in a way that is easily digested and with just enough humor!! ((HUGS)) Love you. Actually, I'm thinking about printing this post and passing it out to our youth.