Confessions of faith
Confessions of faith
Why are you a member of WELS? What does this church body have that makes it unique from hundreds of others? In this series, you will read about why some choose to join WELS and what members treasure most about being WELS.
“We went from non church goers to getting baptized, confirmed, married, and becoming regular church goers, all in like a six-month period,” says Patricia.
This started what Chris calls “a new chapter” in their lives.
The start of the story
Neither Patricia nor Chris knew much about the Bible while they were growing up. “I was pretty much clueless,” says Patricia. “I knew Jesus was the son of Mary and that was the extent of it. We were never baptized as kids.”
Chris knew a little bit more. “I knew about Jesus and God. Kind of what he had done. My mom belonged to the Christian church, but it didn’t have my attention.”
Patricia and Chris met when Patricia was in high school. When she turned 18, she moved out from her parents’ home and moved in with Chris. “Getting married was something we had always talked about, but financially it never really happened,” says Patricia.
In 2007, 10 years after they started dating, Patricia and Chris decided to get married. Even though neither of them had a strong religious background, “we knew that we wanted to [get married] in a church,” says Patricia. “We wanted to do it the right way because we did so many things the wrong way.”
So they began searching. And searching. And searching. “There wasn’t any place we felt welcome or comfortable, where we didn’t feel stupid for asking questions,” says Patricia.
They also felt like churches were giving them the runaround. “I e-mailed churches and they would say, ‘We don’t want you. You’re living in sin,’ ” says Patricia. “Or they would say, ‘You’re not a member. You need to pay money.’ We were getting discouraged.”
A new setting
Then Patricia heard about a church called Grace from a coworker whose sister was married there. The coworker told Patricia how welcoming the church was.
Patricia decided to check it out herself. She and her neighbor drove by the church and “it looked nice from the outside,” says Patricia. They stopped and met Debbie, the office manager. “She just stopped what she was doing. She was really enthusiastic to show me around.”
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