As mentioned last week, I shall begin my account of my years in a Christian control church. First though, I need to clarify some necessary details.

The leadership of this group is still active, so I will not be using anyone’s name nor will I be using the real name of the group. In most cases I will use capitalized letters that mean nothing to anyone.

My earliest memory of a spiritual encounter was at the age of 4. It was a sunny, summer morning, the falling rain had ceased, the waist high grass was wet as I made my way to the pumpkin patch. The air felt moist on my skin and smelled fresh and earthy.

My gaze fell to the east, over the tops of the fruit trees to the bluish distant mountain, where I saw banks of fog drifting lazily along its sides. From where it came I don’t know, but a great peace fell upon me and covered me like a blanket, saturating every part of me.

I don’t know how long the presence lasted, but I didn’t forget it, ever.
In my mid teens I was unable to understand how my own church, the United Church of Canada, connected its beliefs to me and visa versa. I began a search outside of my roots.

I looked at the Seventh Day Adventists, the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, none had answers for me. I read books by Dr. Paul Brunton who wrote about metaphysics. The books were interesting but hadn’t any answers for me either, at least nothing I could translate into day to day living.

For those of us who grew up during the 1960’s, we saw great change. The culture changes with long hair, soft drugs, the anti Vietnam war movement,
and the hippies. Out of the hippies came the Jesus Freaks.

The hippie movement was based on love, peace, drugs, and dropping out, which to the spiritual seeker was not permanently life changing. Thus rose the Jesus Freaks. This is a simplistic explanation but it serves my purpose.

When the Jesus Freaks move began to gather steam and numbers grew, the clergy in North America began to see an opportunity. New graduates from Pastors’ collages all over the continent began to actively recruit the Jesus Freaks.

The new Pastors’ goal was to stabilize the youthful Jesus Freaks and turn them into productive, orderly citizens.

In my early 20’s I had encounters with the Jesus Freaks, I didn’t think much of their message at that time, but I listened sometimes.

In my search for truth and how it would relate to day to day living, I realized that Christianity was the most likely avenue to pursue.

I was living in Calgary at the time, 1975, and I looked at several Christian sects, but to no avail. By then I had quit drinking, smoking, and partying, so I was serious about my seeking.

Then I met a fellow, whose message about Jesus Christ brought everything down to day to day living and it all made sense, finally!

I got saved, spoke in heavenly tongues, and began my journey into the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

I was now a Bible based, tongue talking, holy ghost, spirit filled, man of God. I was baptized, that is totally immersed in water. As a child I was sprinkled, but full immersion was considered an act of obedience. I was now part of that Church ( PPCE ) and I moved to Edmonton to join the group.

PPCE had a congregation mostly made up of young adults between the ages of 19 and 40, roughly 300 people all told, most were single. To accommodate the singles, the men lived together in houses of  5 to 8 as did the women in their own residences in similar numbers.

The Pastor and his wife lived in their own home, quite a distance from the singles residences. Most singles didn’t have cars therefore many of the residences were close to the site of the church.

We were required to work which would enable us to give more money to God and thereby put more money into the coffers of the PPCE. Church service attendance was mandatory. We had Tuesday night Bible study, Friday night Coffee House, Saturday night service, Sunday morning service, and Sunday night service. The services were usually 3 hours or more in length, except for the Bible study.

It was a wonderful social time getting to know everyone. In a car, wherever we went, we always sang the church songs which were taken out of the Psalms and the Proverbs.

Being together so much brought a wonderful unity. An activity we did a great deal of was to move people and their stuff from one house location to another.

There were things we weren’t allowed to do such as reading anything other than the Bible. Televisions were not allowed until 1980, movie theatres were outlawed, neighborhood sport team activities were banned, university education was highly frowned upon because most students had to miss the mandatory church functions and students were usually poor financially.

The vocational trades were promoted because the students made money while they were learning, and that enriched the church coffers. All our spending was scrutinized until we could prove that we were giving enough to God, then we were on our own. The Pastor always eyed the tithing books. Sickness and financial problems were both attributed to failure to give enough to God.

Another thing we were not allowed to do was go home for 1 year after we came into the PPCE. I took it all in with a grain of salt because I grew up with the social behavior of, “shut the hell up and do your job”! Questioning authority was just not done without a costly price to pay.

PPCE leadership took full advantage of that instilled behavior and milked it for all it was worth. Everything that was demanded was backed up with Biblical scripture. The main PPCE demand was, “listen and obey, for if you do not obey, when you die you will go to Hell for eternity!” Nobody wants to spend their eternity in Hell do they?

I’ll continue this commentary next week.

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