The Plan - how I got here (part I)

Now that my trip to Dallas is finished, let me provide you with a bit of background information:

Back in the spring of 1991, when I should have been getting ready to graduate from college, my new girlfriend and I were spending a lot of time talking. Talking while swinging on the swings outside of the elementary school that was also part of the college campus. We were talking about our religious upbringing.

She told me about her family regularly attending mass at the Catholic church in her hometown. You know, St. Somethingorother's Church, and I told her about the church I grew up in, which is The Salvation Army. You may know it from the red kettles at Christmas, but it is actually a Protestant church of Methodist/Wesleyan/Arminian background, and not just a charitable organization. Some people are surprised when they learn this.

She was actually more interested in my church than I was in hers. At that time we were both questioning our beliefs and how they gelled with what our churches taught, or not.

I told her that both sets of my grandparents, some uncles, a cousin and several other distant relatives in my family tree were Officers in the Salvation Army. {For those of you who don't know or aren't familiar with the Salvation Army's organizational structure, it is loosely based on a pseudo-military style, where the Officers are the ministers or pastors, having ranks from Cadet thru General. Cadets are officers in training and the General, well there's only one at a time, and he is the international leader of the whole organization. There have been two female Generals in the history of the Salvation Army.}

She asked me all kinds of questions about what the Salvation Army believes and where they fit in the grand scheme of churches. She was really grilling me and most of the questions she asked were things I couldn't answer off the top of my head.

So then she totally blew me away with the next question: "Do you ever think that you'd want to be a pastor?"

Instantly and without hesitation I said, "Uuuuuuuuhm, NO WAY!!!"

part II forthcoming....