I figured we surely had a pretty large contingent on here... We go to the Oxford campus. It has been a Godsend for me!
I have always been very small-group-centric, so the whole small group mentality of COTH is good for me. But the best thing is the life/vibrancy it has brought to my walk.
Spent a few of my early years in a "traditional" Southern Baptist church, and the past 15 or so in a slightly more "contemporary" Southern Baptist church (which basically just means we had a young-ish preacher and sang more contemporary music than old stuff, and we'd tiptoe right up to the line of Reformed soteriology, but could just never let go of the Law and the incessant preaching of behavioral modification).
I guess I just wanted to talk about this today... I've long known my spiritual giftedness was in the groove of "teaching", I'm the oddball that likes theology and unpacking it, so the "academic" side of our faith has just been easy for me. It was easy for me to answer the questions. But over long years I began to realize a cognitive disconnect in my life... I just didn't have any "oomph" in my worship, it was all mental for me I guess. Oh sure, I'd sometimes be emotional, but I was reserved and usually wouldn't show that publically. Until recently I had never raised my hand (or anything like that). I've had lots of happy cry sessions in the truck going down the road, but I had never just given God what He is worth. So maybe 3 years ago (+,-) I just began to wander. I resigned my class, resigned as a deacon, and shortly thereafter just left my church. The problem had to be "there", right? We joined another SBC church and that lasted all of about a year before I admitted that the church we left was better than this new one. So the truth is for the last year we had hardly attended church at all. My reasoning was that I had just come to a place of understanding that I just wasn't "Southern Baptist" anymore. Now that part was honest, but it wasn't ALL the problem. If anybody asked (and often even if they didn't) I took the opportunity to lament that there simply wasn't a church around that actually preached scripture with a clue of what grace is. I hoped, and longed, and wished to have a nearby church that exposited the scripture, made Jesus the focus of it all (not me), confessed that we are broken, that the work of grace was COMPLETELY finished and that I could rest in it, and trusted the Holy Spirit to work in me (not the nasty SBC theology of behavioral modification). So I felt all alone. Seriously, I routinely cried out to God, "What's wrong with me???...why does everybody else seem happy in a church that I believe is spiritually sick??? Do I have this all wrong, God? Is my theology flawed? Am I the lone fool with this cognitive disconnect?
Well, a friend who shares my doctrinal views had been on me for some months about visiting COTH (they were driving from Oxford to Grants Mill), but I had no interest in such a drive. When we began to hear about the coming of an Oxford campus I started to investigate, and I got sucked in to the "21 Days of Prayer" in January just prior to our opening Sunday of Feb 4th. Oh. My. Stars. This is it!!! Um, I don't often talk in mysterious/spiritual ways, but dude you talkin' about getting stirred!!! On our first Sunday we had approx. 2300 people show up, most of whom I knew went to other local churches, and virtually all of whom have stuck here! That first day we left church and started home, nobody really spoke at first. All of a sudden I just couldn't hold it in anymore, I just cried. Not aloud, but with tears down my check because I was humbled that God was speaking to me. That wasn't so much a testament to COTH as it was an indictment on the other local churches. It was like God said, "There's your answer. You've been asking me if you were wrong. You've been longing for a place to worship. You weren't alone!"
And old preacher friend of mine used to say, "Tis easier to calm the fanatic than to raise a corpse", and boy was that true! I feel like a corpse who has been breathed back to life! COTH has been awesome for my family! We are serving as Growth Track hosts, and I think I'm going to lead a small group (it'll feel like the good ol' days of teaching). I don't wish to exalt Church of the Highlands, but only that it's faithful to scripture and vibrant with worship.
BTW, if you aren't attending the 21 Days of Prayer, please do!
