Taming of the Dude: One man's Journey with Jesus

Chapter 11 Who invited the Hippies

Chapter 11 Who invited the Hippies

1 Peter 2: 9A But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people;

My mom, at some point in our childhood, felt a compulsion to take us to church. She dresses up all of us into clean and relatively new clothes. We walked to St. George's Anglican church. Her parents were raised or somehow affiliated with the Anglican church. No one actually went to church, but we were all baptized as babies. It might have been a reason to get together and have a party. Not sure of the motivation, but today would be our introduction to the Anglican church, and the start of our religious upbringing. We arrived at the church. My mom strategically placed us at the back of the church. It might seem like a good plan at the time, but this church was huge and it was empty. The priest must have been a mile away and possibly a Scotsman because we could not make out what he was saying from way up there. I think we made it through the singing, but once the sermon started, we were off. It was almost as if the sermon was a starter pistol, and we were on the starting line, ready to bolt. The sermon started and all three of us were on the pew, under the pew, and over the pew. My mom, exasperated, though she had the solution. She had a backup plan to the back pew and that was dinky cars. Again, mom might have thought that was a good idea, but we took those dinky cars and started racing them up and down the pew. It was not that the cars made that much noise, but my brother and I had to make the engine noise for the cars. These cars were race cars, so they made a lot of noise. Now, I was busy racing cars with my brother, so I do not know what the others in the church were doing, maybe trying to listen to the sermon. They also might have gave my mom dagger stares too, because she packed us, kids, up and quickly left the church. We never went back to the church after that. Sunday became the day you used to recover from the night before, in an attempt to be ready to go to work on Monday.

Then,...years later .... , I was a young man married to a godly woman walking into my first Independent Baptist Church. You might not know about Independent Baptist churches because most of them have changed their names to protect the faith. Baptist got a really bad reputation, so much so that in the late 90 and early 2000 many churches changed their names to fellowship or community churches. It is not to say that all Independent Baptist churches are gone, but they are becoming extinct, like the dinosaurs. I did not have a problem with the discipline services and the high requirements for membership because I needed discipline and responsibility. I needed the 2-hour sermons to correct 20 years of false teaching. I drank it all up and loved learning and being challenged by God's Word. The problem was my church mates could not figure us out. They thought we were hippies with our Birkenstock sandals, beard and relaxed attitude. This is not the way a Baptist conducts themselves. You need to be clean-shaven, wear dress shoes and a suit with a tie. Anything less is just sinful and I was a sinner in their eyes. It was so bad that my wife and I could not help out in the church because we did not attend every service. We both were in University, trying to raise our daughter and also maintain family relationships. Our families lived 45 minutes for my wife's family and 2 hours for my family. There was a lot of pressure for our commitment to the church and to our family. We loved God and we loved church, but we also felt that the Lord also wanted us to maintain our family relationships too. Both our families were not saved at this time.

I was able however to meet some of their changes. I was able to find a suit at the Goodwill that was still in good shape and by the time Father's Day came I had a tie. The dress shoes were also a Goodwill/Salvation Army deal. I think within a month or two we looked like the rest of the congregation but to the congregation we still were hippies. In time, we would be accepted and even given responsibilities in the church. We would be plugged into every service and have some involvement. My wife and I even started an evening children's church to help families with small children to come and worship in the evening. We had small children and I knew how hard it was to have them in the service and keep them entertained without the use of dinky cars. Whatever you do, make sure that you do not use dinky cars in a church service. Trust me on this, it does not end well.

Besides being outcasts in the church, we were outcasts in our own family. In the church we were hippies and with our family, we were Bible Thumpers. It really was an odd time in our stage of life. I remember going to my cousin's wedding in the US. He was the same cousin that I went to the Bush party with when I was younger. I learned later that he had a baby when he was sixteen with a girl he met at one of the bush parties. I can say that it was not at the parties that I went with him. Most likely because most of the people at those parties avoided us. Anyway, we went to this wedding out of pressure from the family. I knew that it was going to be lively and a drunk fest. It did not disappoint. Everyone was drunk and talking like Scotsmen. My wife and I were not drinking and we were getting a lot of slack. My family thought I was not drinking because of my wife. They did not know her that well but they knew that she was a "Christian". They all figured she had brainwashed me and in reality, I was aching to let loose and get hammered. The truth was I did not want to get drunk or let loose. I caved. I compromised which is something I think every person knows how to do. I did not get drunk but instead, I danced around like a fool and had a good time. The dancing was mostly mocking dance because I really do not like dancing. It worked because everyone left us alone. They thought I was drunk and life was back to normal. However, they were shocked to learn at the end of the evening I was not drunk. They still talk about it today. They cannot believe I could have so much fun without any alcohol, who knew.

Even today after 30 years of being a part of the church and the last 20 years in full-time ministry, my friends still think I am a hippie, while others believers think I am a legalistic stick in the mud. Life is good when you are peculiar.