The Merger

Well, my time with Carlo eventually became an ongoing thing. We would meet together and talk about the Lord. Carlo seemed very interested in working together with me. I kind of got the feeling that his group was devoid of young people and that we were a quick solution to that problem. I was only 24 years old at the time. I had a house full of young people in love with the Lord and Carlo had a house full of of ex-church goers. I really didn't know how it would all work but I thought that a little bit of maturity couldn't hurt and so I soon began to integrate our kids with Carlo's folks. We met at a place called Branch Christian Center. It was a house that Carlo purchased adjacent to his gas station.

This was my first introduction to "churchianity". We met on Sunday and all sat in rows made up of fold up chairs. Carlo would preach to us and occasionally I would lead the worship time. It seemed a bit strange. It was kind of rigid and yet at the same time felt a little bit out of the box especially for Carlo's group. They were former Methodists, Presbyterians, and some were Baptist. I didn't know anything about any of those denominations because I had never in my life experienced traditional church. There was an edge about Carlo's group though. Things needed to be in order. There was a different expectancy as compared to our kids. We just wanted more of God. We had no agenda beyond that. Carlo seemed bent on having something grow. The whole atmosphere began to change. Our focus seemed to change. We were now trying to make the Branch Christian Center the center of our attention.

A startling event occurred after church one Sunday. We would ask folks to stay for prayer. I remember a lady named Liz coming up for prayer. One of the young fellas from my group layed his hands on her to pray and was stunned by Liz. She looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Don't lay hands on me with your smoke stained fingers!". She rebuked the young man publicly and we were all shocked and dismayed. My heart was so heavy. The young man was a young christian just trying to make his way and Liz crushed him.

This was lesson number one. It was hurtful and unnecessary. We really didn't know what we just walked into. Was it a church or a lions den? We weren't sure after Liz' tirade.

Next up.....

Religion replaces Love