The unvarnished outward facts are these:
I was raised in Kansas in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. After graduating from high school I attended Concordia College (now Concordia University) in Seward, Nebraska, for two-and-a-half years before dropping out and working for two years in various jobs. I always intended to return to school someplace and eventually decided to move to Seattle in order to attend the University of Washington, majoring in History. During my first year in Seattle, my attachment to the Lutheran church having become quite weak, I became involved with an independent Pentecostal church called Community Chapel and Bible Training Center in Seattle's south end. After several months of thinking and praying about it I decided to attend its Bible college and so dropped out of the University after completing one year.
At Community Chapel I met and married my wife (to whom I'm still happily married), became father to a daughter, and completed a four-year Bible college degree; but by the time I graduated the church had already started its descent into the scandalous teachings and practices that would cause it to disintegrate. I perceived that its Bible college degree wasn't going to get me a very good job, so I once more returned to school, going back first to Highline Community College in Des Moines, Washington, for two years, then back to the University of Washington, this time majoring in Computer Engineering. While completing that degree I also finished up the History degree I had started there earlier. I then worked in the software industry in the Seattle area until 2018 when we moved to the Boise area and I retired.
From 1988, when Community Chapel collapsed, until 2003, when I happily and confidently returned to membership in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, I attended many different churches, both Pentecostal or Charismatic (Vineyard, United Pentecostal, Foursquare, Assembly of God, several independent bodies) and non-Pentecostal (American Baptist, Evangelical Covenant), some for only a month or two, some for as long as three years. That experience was invaluable—today I thank God for leading me through it and bringing me back safely into a confessional congregation of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Before I went through the disintegration of Community Chapel and my subsequent search for a new church home, I was scarcely aware of the issues at stake in Christian faith, worship, and life; I really didn't know why I was a Christian, much less a Lutheran. Today I know why, and I hope I'm communicating that through this site.
Steve Born
steve_b@srb26.com