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People ask me, how did I find the New Church? In many ways I feel that the New Church found me. My wife, Linda, and I were living down the street from a New Church (though we didn’t know it). We were newly married, without any children, and had been exploring different religions. I was raised Lutheran, and she was raised Church of Christ. For a number of reasons, neither of those churches resonated with us personally, and so we wandered, like the Children of Israel, trying to find our path. We were committed to finding something. We had plenty of choices, from New Age to very conservative doctrinal. We were not comfortable with either, and we did not know what else was out there. One Sunday morning, Linda picked up a flier for the New Church. We read it, and it peaked our interest. So we went the next week, and the pastor’s preaching and passion for the New Church excited us.

We were the back of the room type folks. We kept coming, started to get to know the people, and gradually committed. The wonderful thing about the New Church is that the nature of the folks that go there reflects the nature of the New Church and what it really teaches. I’ve participated in two New Church congregations, and in each congregation many people were not originally connected to the New Church. It attracted this really wonderful quality of people. We continued to go to church and got to know the people and the next thing I knew I was a Sunday School teacher.

Linda and I feel that this church is our home. We’ve met wonderful people here. The teachings make sense to us. Now that we have children, we have values to pass on to them, values from New Church teachings. Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings have had an influence on this world.

This is a church for people who are seeking the truth, who look to the past and say that’s too much dogma, and who look to the future and say that’s too new agey and out there. The fact is that there is a Church, the New Church, that says you have free will and that what you do with that free will is really important because you create your heaven here on earth. It’s not just by faith alone, it’s not by saying "I believe," but it’s actually making choices, respecting your maturity in your mind and your heart. The whole idea is so that you grow and you continue to grow. That’s the beauty of the New Church to me. It made me want to grow, to get better. It’s allowed me to have a more dynamic, wonderful life. I really don’t know what I’d be doing today if I didn’t have the New Church. I would still be a very lost person."

from New Church Connection Magazine