This is my second try at this, as the first one disappeared into the ether – probably because of my lack of expertise with html or something like that! I want to give my best effort at explaining those of us who are defined as evangelical Christians (NOTE: NOT fundamentalists!) so people can get the information directly from someone who knows what they are talking about without any of the myths that seem to get propagated around such a seemingly hot-button issue these days. I’ll break this up into several parts so as not to take up too much of the space here, and run the segments a few days apart. That should give you time to question me, and time for me to give the best answers I can.

I really despise the idea of tooting my own horn, but I guess it is somewhat necessary to list some of my education and expertise, and some of my history as regards the subject, if I hope to be considered remotely familiar with the truth here. After that, I will go into some of our history as a church, and detail what our doctrines and practices are, with how we got there. Folks, I’ll do my best to give you the whole picture, and if there’s something I don’t know, I’ll tell you. No BS, I just don’t believe in that, and I’ll be honest and as complete as I know how.

My history: I was raised Southern Baptist until age 16, when I started attending a Pentecostal church, the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) – there are several denominations with the same name – and it was with the Church of God that I got my first formal and semi-formal Bible education courses. I attended Lee College via correspondence, graduating with diploma in Theology. Later, I moved over to the Assemblies of God, a denomination with identical theology and doctrine but different structure and polity, and received further education from Berean University- an AA in Christian Pastoral Ministry. Most of this was done while I was on active duty with the US Air Force, from which I retired in 1993. Also, during a break in service, from 1973-1977, I attended New Hampshire College in Portsmouth, NH, where I earned a BA in Business Management. Not related, I had almost 2 years of electronics tech schools in the AF, and graduated from EMT school in 1978, then paramedic school a few years later.

While in the service, I managed to pastor several small churches part-time, and after retirement I also pastored churches. An injury while working as a paramedic forced me to resign my last church, and today my ministry is mostly teaching and writing, with preaching as a fill-in when I can. Truthfully, teaching has always been the love of my heart as regards ministry, and I think that’s where the Lord can use me best. Today I spend a lot of time on this weblog, and also with my own weblog site, here. On that site, I have a number of links that can be used to explore other Christian websites and get into their doctrines should one so desire.

Aside from all that, I’m trying to get a small business started doing business writing such as technical/mechanical manuals, business proposals, and such type of work for companies who need a professional writer to help them out with composition and publishing/printing. Not being busy enough, I’m still working on a manuscript that I started on a laptop in the back of a C-130 during Gulf War I, true stories of ambulance calls and the heroes who save lives. The title is “LIFESAVERS!”, and with God’s help, I may finish it and get it published someday! Believe me, writing is hard work…..

OK, that’s enough for now. Next, I’ll take a look at Evangelicals and our doctrines, faith, and practice. Thank you for your patience, stay tuned!