Hello everyone. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. School has been very time-consuming with quite a bit of projects, but now I have no more school, I hope I can come back more and post!
Today, I wanted to share with you all how I found my church and what led me to become a Congregationalist.
As I said in my testimony, I didn't enjoy going to church as a young kid, feeling it was an "extra day of school". In my elementary and middle school years, I attended 2 evangelical churches in the Bay Area, 1 every Sunday until around 4th grade, the 2nd as a participant in their Day Camp Program both as a camper and as a staff. While I did believe in the Savior back then, I was not very active in those churches. Me and my family stopped attending the 1st evangelical church around 4th grade due to disagreements in some of their teachings.
As many of you know, I was inspired by my favorite Disney characters and Disney classics to pursue animation around 5th-6th grade. However, the Disney feature films and short cartoons weren't the only things that touched my heart. Walt Disney, the man who started it all, also inspired me with both his way of seeing the world and his vision to bring entertainment to the "child within us all".
In high school, I was curious to learn more about Walt Disney and the amazing animated films he made. I found out that Walt Disney was a Congregationalist and even that the Disney classics, many of them and the inspiring messages were inspired by his Congregational upbringing. Without a church to call home at the time, I looked more into the Congregational Way. Being inspired strongly from the Disney animated feature Pinocchio (1940) to believe in my dreams and trust my conscience, I found similarities between my beliefs and that of the Congregational Way.
I really like how the Congregational Church emphasizes the importance of the individual's conscience guiding one's spirit. While many other Christian churches expect their believers to believe and do certain things based on a literal interpretation of the Bible without questioning, the Congregational Way respects the freedom of the individual believer and his/her/their personal relationship with Christ as the guiding force in his/her/their life. I also like how us a Congregationalists not only read scripture, but also are open to different interpretations based on time, place, and circumstance. It's heartwarming hearing all the different interpretations that come from reading scripture.
With that, in college, I started looking for Congregational Churches to attend. With many Congregational Churches belonging to the UCC (United Church of Christ), during COVID, I attended a UCC virtually for a few months back in 2021. While I did appreciate their acceptance of LGBTQ and other disenfranchised individuals, I left due to the church preaching too much politics.
Turning away from the UCC, I still believed that there are Congregational churches that truly believe in the Congregational way. So, I turned to the Congregational churches part of the NACCC and as I currently live in Anaheim, I started attending First Congregational Church of Anaheim (FCCA) in November 2021 virtually for a few months, before making my first in-person appearance in March 2022. Knowing no one at that church before, I first felt shy to show up in-person. However, my experience has always been much better than expected. Since Day 1, everyone at FCCA, including Pastor Jim, Pastor Emily, both Toms, Susan, and many more, have been very kind and accepting to me and my differences. I enjoyed every service, as well as the church outing to Peralta Park to celebrate 4th of July last year.
In December 2022, nine months after my first in-person service at FCCA, a few days before my trip to Hawai'i, I heard that the church was hosting a new members class in late-January. When I expressed my desire to officially join the church, both Pastor Jim and Pastor Emily were excited. And so, on February 5, right on Peter Pan's 70th Birthday, I became an official member of the Congregational Church! And yes, I will always remember to have faith, trust, and pixie dust!
Even when I move up to Los Feliz or Burbank, I still hope to make the drive down to attend FCCA on certain Sundays. I like the diversity at my church, where individuals of all different backgrounds attend and are respected. I even appreciate how my church is friendly not just to the Congregational Church members, but also non-members and those of different faiths and religions. I even see some Catholics and those of different faiths attend every now and then. So many interfaith marriages at my church. It even reminds me of thinking about marriage in the future. Will my spouse and I both attend FCCA, will we attend our respective different churches, or will we attend both of our churches on different Sundays (like we go to my church one Sunday, my spouse's church the next Sunday)? Will we both be Congregationalists, or will we be of different denominations? No matter what the stakes present itself, I believe that the Lord will find a way to make it work out.
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