After I graduated from college I entered a graduate program for New Testament studies. The professors and I quickly realized this was not going to be a good fit. I did not question the validity of the Scriptures like they did. When the Apostle Paul began one of his New Testament epistles saying that this was a letter from him, I did not question whether this was true or not; they wanted to question it. So I moved on.
Believing I needed further training in studying scripture, I asked the Pastor of the church where I was attending if he would be willing to oversee some studies I did. I knew this would be good motivation and accountability for me. He agreed and so we began. One of the courses I designed was in regards to important subjects from scripture for someone who was going to be in the ministry. The title of the course was “Topics For The Minister.” Following is the syllabus.
One of the projects that I did during this course was to take a survey. The survey included questions from each of the topics. Some of the questions were as follows:
- Does your church practice elder rule?
- Does your church allow women to teach or excercise authority over men?
- Does your church teach against the use of birth control?
- Does your church marry individuals if they are divorced?
- Does your church discourage people from borrowing money?
- Does your church give any specific guidelines when you teach about modest apparel?
- Does your church teach that women need to be veiled during worship at the church?
I went to about 17 different churches in Tulsa, Oklahoma where I was living at the time. I spoke with many of the pastors who answered the survey. These churches were from all denominations and several non-denominational churches – a broad spectrum.
Here are some of the results that were interesting to me: not one church spoke about or talked about the use of birth control, only one church said they would not marry a couple if one or both had been divorced, and not one church taught against borrowing money.
One of the reasons I am taking this trip around the country is to see if we can find families or churches who are practicing these principles.
So I will be taking copies of a survey with me and asking people to fill them out. Maybe you would be interested in answering the questions. Click here to take the survey.
