The Sum of My Religious Experience in 435 Words
I was raised in the faith, attending the same non-denominational church from my birth to my eleventh year, at which point my Father, an elder, and my Mother left the church over its management. Finding no replacement that suited their tastes, we simply stopped attending church, and my participation in the Body became sporadic and rare. The situation was not rectified in any meaningful way for more than five years, until a friend invited me to a Bible study. Such a simple event would not likely have had any effect on me if I had not been first primed by the vagaries of tragedy that accompany life. Divorce and death took their toll, illness added its measure, but the depths of my distress were plumbed by a car accident on a small two-lane highway in humble Poth,Texas. Never in my life and faith have I ever experienced a turning point that matches looking down at the battered crippled form of my Mother. Never in my life had I encountered such a powerful reason to doubt the goodness of God, and never had I experienced such complete and total helplessness. It may sound strange that the most formative event in one’s faith is merely endeavoring to survive an intensely painful event, but it is in suffering that we most easily learn to rely on God. At the center is the example of Jesus, who, while being the most powerful being to ever walk this planet, endured such suffering that our own pales in comparison. In the suffering and triumph of Jesus we find all the hope that we could possibly need. That simple Bible study invitation brought me bit by bit back into the Body of Christ. I attended for a couple of years the church that sponsored the bible study, until moving to my current church home. I began my journey with Windsor Park when a professor told me he was going to pastor a church on the brink of collapse. I wanted to be of service to the mostly geriatric congregation, and so I signed up. Since joining, I have served in a number of different areas; I am the clerk, Secretary of Corporation, Chairman of the Property and Maintenance Committee, and I have served in a ministerial capacity by visiting the elderly. While I feel that an aspect of my calling is service to the needy and frail, I feel most called to the teaching and instruction of the church in an academic setting. I desire greatly to lead others to a knowledge and understanding of the Bible that promotes a Christ-centered worldview.
This is my essay response to this question on a college application:
Reflect on your past Christian experience, including the most significant spiritual event/influence in your life, the role of Christ in your religious experience, the effect your faith has on your worldview, your involvement in Christian service, your perceived gifts/calling for ministry, and your reason(s) for attending your church.
The response was supposed to be approximately 300 words, but 435 was the best I could do.