Journey Out: of the United Pentecostal Church
Categories: Kindle Store, Kindle eBooks, Religion & Spirituality

The book The Journey Out describes a pilgrimage. It is the story of one man and woman, both reared within the closed boundaries of a narrow religious community, who chose to make their way into the larger world of Christianity. In this case, the religious community was the United Pentecostal Church International, though it may well be that one could change the name to some other closed community, and the story would equally resonate. Closed communities are chiefly characterized by their defensive walls. In this case, one’s theology, social network and personal spirituality were sharply defined by a set of historical boundaries set many decades ago by people of an earlier generation. These elements were vigorously protected as absolute truths, and thinking or reading “outside the box” of the denomination were not merely discouraged, but harshly reprimanded. At the same time, such a closed community offers psychological safety in that its members always know exactly where they are to stand and precisely what they are to believe. The social world inside is nearly as comforting as the womb of the mother to the unborn child. One could go anywhere in the United States—indeed in many countries of the world—and find a fellow-member of the denomination who would be willing to assist in virtually any sort of crisis. Such fellowship is not to be shrugged off lightly! Nonetheless, there comes a time for the one who takes seriously the challenge of self-evaluation when even the comforting warmth of fellowship is not sufficient to outweigh the increasing burden of anti-intellectualism. In this case, the journey began for a college teacher and his wife, deeply loyal to the denomination and punctiliously careful about its fence. In time, they came to realize that the mandates that had been handed down and the theologies which were sacrosanct simply could not be squared with the Bible itself. To be sure, Christians through the centuries had disagreed about any number of secondary issues, but here, there was fundamental variance about the two most central issues—who is God and how can one be put right with God. The whole history of the Christian church said one thing, and the shorter history of the denomination said something quite different. In the end, this couple came to believe that classical Christianity had been right all along, while the founders of their sect, deeply sincere though they might have been, were profoundly mistaken in their conclusions. This is their story.


Publication date: July 4, 2015
Language: English
File size: 345 KB
Simultaneous device usage: Unlimited
Text to Speech: Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced typesetting: Enabled
X Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Sticky notes: On Kindle Scribe
Print length: 142 pages