I love the fact that the Priest (pastor) of an Orthodox parish looks different from his parishioners and from those outside of the church.

When I look at pictures of preachers from the denomination that I grew up in and other denominations as well, they all look like salesman to me.

There are signs of a movement in Wichita to bring an Orthodox Classical Christian School to the burgeoning metropolis. It is a movement that I hope will not take long to gain a full head of steam.

The current educational system that is found in the public educational system is bankrupt. There is no way for the system to be fixed, a tourniquet will temporarily stop the bleeding but it does not solve the problem. Many of the private schools across the nation are not much better.

The inherent problem with educational system both public and in some cases private is that the program centers around the student. It encourages the student to think only about themselves and seek for their own pleasure.

Students must learn that they are part of a larger whole. They are not the complete humanity but only one fractional part of it. Modern society continues to inform the student that they, the student, is the only one that matters, that the cosmos revolves around them. Orthodox Christianity on the other hand tells us that life has to be lived out in communion with other people. We are told that we do not live for ourselves but rather that we live for others, we live to lay down our lives for others, not ourselves. One of the ways for students to recognize that they are part of something bigger than themselves is getting them to dig into the classics. They need to learn that life hasn’t just evolved in the last century but rather many of the things which we take for granted were sorted out centuries ago.

Educating the whole person is another goal of Orthodox Classical Education. This is not found in public education for they only seek to educate and form the mind and body. The same can be said for most private schools. In the Orthodox Church we learn that the whole person is to re-made. We do not focus on the mind and forget about the spiritual and neither do we focus on the spiritual and forgo the mind. The focus and goal of Orthodox education is to form and educate the whole of a person. Latin and Greek are one of the ways that the mind is formed and the daily prayers and services are ways that the spiritual is formed. With that being said it does not mean that the mind cannot be developed in the prayers and services and that the spiritual cannot be developed in the reading of classics and learning of languages.

In closing there are numerous arguments to put forth but the most convincing argument is to put forward what His Grace Bishop BASIL said, whether we will go with the flow and not instill the Faith in our children or go against the flow and begin to raise up schools in Wichita and across the country.

-Scupoli, Nicodemus, St. Theophan. Unseen Warfare. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press

I will either post excerpts from the book or comment on what I am gleaning from the book. Lord willing this will be a help to all of us.

All of the Saints are our older brothers in the House of the Heavenly Father. Having departed from earth to heaven, they are always with us in God…. They serve together with us, they sing, they speak, they instruct, they help us in various temptations and sorrows. Call upon them as living with you under a single roof; glorify them, thank them, converse with them as with living people: and you will believe in the Church. – St. John of Kronstadt

It is still somewhat of a secret but I no longer wish for it to be that way. I wanted to play it cool and try not to fall into the same traps that I did when I was younger and went from being a Baptist to being a Reformed Presbyterian. There was a term for people like me and it spoke volumes. “Thunder puppies” was the term designated for people like me. We were so zealous for the “truth” that we preached it to everyone, or rather crammed it down their throats. We just didn’t understand why no one could get it. It was so simple, so obvious, as obvious as…well you get my point. It pains me to look back now and see that my zealotry was not what type of zealotry that the Gospels, Apostles, Church Fathers, and the Church itself teach. It was a foolish zealotry. It is painful knowing that I was so zealous for the “truth” only to realize a few years later that what I had called the truth was only a small part of the truth.

So I find myself today in position that I never thought would be possible and believing those things which I thought I would never believe. My world has been turned upside down, but then again the Gospels tell us that our worlds would be turned upside down. The Gospels tell us that the way of the Cross goes contrary to the way of the world and that there would be times when the world would hate us, that the world would scratch theirs heads and question or actions. I find myself in the “Truth” but I do not wish to keep it to myself and bury the talents which have been given to me, but rather to take the talents and produce more. I do not wish to hide the light that has been given to me.

On January 31, 2010, I was Chrismated and brought into the Eastern Orthodox Church. But that was only beginning of the race or rather marathon. It goes further back and I would like to unveil some of what took place in my life to bring me where I am today.

As I have stated earlier, I was a Baptist who then became a Reformed Presbyterian. But I think that the story really begins when I went to college. It is not that my parents had nothing to do with where I am today but it is the first time that I can recall where I actually had to make real commitments on my own. I was fully responsible for my actions and the choices that I made.

Shortly after graduating from high school I made the decision to attend Bob Jones University. It is the leading college of the independent, fundamental Baptist denomination. And yes they pride themselves on being independent and fundamental, but that is beside the point. I only attended Bob Jones for a year and a half before I realized that I would not have the money to finish school there. It was a financial travesty for me but there was and still is one bright spot during that short stay at college. It was in the second semester of my freshman year and there was deep desire that was beginning to develop and as result of that desire a prayer came forth, one which still astounds me today. I prayed in my room one Saturday as I was looking over the campus, I asked God that if I could not learn the truth of the Bible at college then I wanted to learn the truth. Basically, if they were teaching erroneous doctrines I wanted know the correct doctrine.

That was the foundation that was laid. I went from being a good Baptist to a Baptist that began to question the doctrines of the Baptist church. I began to realize that there were inconsistencies in the application of Scripture. They would explain that when Christ turned the water into wine at the Wedding of Cana, He did not actually make wine but rather made grape juice, forgetting that the grape juice made today was not common until the pasteurization process came about. Baptists were good at picking and choosing which verses to accept and which to put in a box and leave it on the shelf. The Reformed Presbyterians were a little better but it still ended the same. They would agree that the water turned into wine was indeed wine, but asked about Christ being present in the Bread and Wine would say that it is not possible because the Catholics believed in transubstantiation. Therefore because the Catholics are wrong on many other doctrines they were also wrong about transubstantiation and it is not possible for the real presence of Christ.

So again I began to realize that the Reformed Presbyterians were doing the same thing as the Baptists and as a result I began to question some of the doctrines of Reformed Presbyterians. At the time that I began to question everything, desiring that there should be some unity of thought and liturgy, I contemplated the Catholic Church and possibly attending. As I was talking to a close friend about the same struggles we were both having, he said, “Have you looked into the Orthodox Church?” Who was the Orthodox Church and what do they believe? Those two questions and more began to really take root. This is where the search really began and this is where I learned that I had to be a part of this Church, not because it was the latest fad or they were emerging, but rather they told the better story. It wasn’t just another church it was as the Orthodox claimed, they were the True Church.

One of the things that really drew me to the Orthodox Church was the fact that they were a unified Church. The Liturgy is the same in each Church. You don’t have to wonder if things are going to be done differently in each Church. Each Liturgy starts the same way and ends the same way.

The Dogmas (Doctrines) of the Orthodox Church are the same as well. Regardless of which seminary that you attend you will learn the same Dogmas. There are still differing opinions on other areas but when it comes to the economy of salvation, the place of Mary the Mother of Christ, the Trinity, etc., the teaching is the same. In Protestantism you will find different teachings on the economy of salvation, i.e, grace alone, election and so forth.

There is a tendency to assume, especially in today’s modern culture that if you have the same Dogmas and Liturgy that everybody is a cut-out and no one is allowed to be themselves, but it is quite the opposite. In the past it has been noted that where there was unanimous agreement on Dogma there was Truth. Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky has noted the same, stating in his book Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, “…the unanimous agreement of all of the Fathers and teachers of the Church in teaching of the faith is an undoubted sign of truth.” Ecumenical Councils were not deemed valid until the Bishops reported back to the parishioners what took place and what decisions were made. Only after the people had given their assent was the Council then deemed valid and became Dogma. Looking back at what they accomplished and the fact that they were truly unified in their belief does raise questions and concerns for many Protestants. I don’t think that you could get every individual in one particular church to assent to the dogmas of say, the Baptist Church. There are disagreements on points of dogma, and because of those disagreements the question has to be raised. Do the Protestant Churches posses the Truth? I would say that they do not because of their lack of unity and the abundance of disunity in the Protestant tradition today.

I love the fact that Dogmas are settled and have been settled for quite some time. There is no theological innovation here and I am quite content with that. I am not a theologian nor do I intend to claim myself as one. Thankfully, I have found something that is bigger then me, I have found somewhere where I don’t have to figure out the doctrines and put myself in a position I would rather not be. After all, home never feels that way.

This process will be an experiment and I beg of any who read any of the following posts to please forgive me of all of the errors that are present. If I say anything that helps you, the reader in any way it is not I who deserves the credit, but God.

I hope this blog will help answer any questions that one might have and I hope that this blog will help us all as we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” as St. Peter said.

I write this blog as an Orthodox Christian convert and so I will attempt to talk about those things which I know a little about and stay away from the error of being an internet theologian.

Saint John of San Francisco, Holy Mother of God and all the saints, who have pleased God in Your lives; pray to Christ my Lord that I might live this day in peace love and humility.

Pray unto God for me, O Holy Saint John of San Francisco, well-pleasing to God: for I turn to you, who are a speedy helper and intercessor for my soul.