When I was a little girl, I remember my parents reading pages of the history of church. My parents went to Bible school when I was small, so I learned too. While some kids simply went to school and played sports afterward, I went to school and then church with my family. Sometimes we went to church seven days a week!

This is what life looks like for a pastor’s kid. As an adult, I’ve seen both advantages and disadvantages of this. One of my favorite parts was actually learning about church history. My mom would sit with my sister and I before bed and read the stories of missionaries from around the world - all the way up to modern day stories. Real life missionaries would travel around the country in their RVs and we would host them in town.

Since I was usually the “baby”, they would actually bring me little gifts and trinkets. My family didn’t have a lot, but we would share our apartment and food. The missionaries would tell us stories of Jesus and how church was done around the world. As I entered my teens, I would explore churches of different denominations and learn how they were formed.

In college, I chose to go to a Lutheran college. I spent several years learning about Martin Luther and the Reformation. Many Lutherans informed me why they didn’t get along with Catholics during that season because of the Reformation. Then, I chose to go to a Wesleyan - Holiness university for my Master’s degree. While I was there, I attended a Methodist church and a young adults group at a Baptist church. Then, I graduated and started working for an evangelical adoption agency. 

Throughout these different seasons and places, I learned so many things. In recent years, I’ve found myself frequenting Assemblies of God and five - fold ministry churches. Each church carries their own belief systems, doctrines, and ways of doing life together. At Tirzah, we frequently find questions from young women asking which one is right and who is wrong. As I prayed over the year 2023 for Tirzah, I knew I wanted to share with young women the foundations of faith.

This means once a month throughout the year, I will be sharing with you how church doctrines and denominations came to be. Tirzah is not a place where we identify under a doctrine or a church denomination - rather we are a place where we explore God’s Word together and see how God has placed us in His Kingdom. As a ministry leader, I’ve connected many different women to the right churches for them. 

The next time you are talking with someone, I encourage you to view things from a Kingdom perspective. Before you judge a denomination or church culture, open your Bible and see if your viewpoint is a preference or a Biblical mandate. At this point in my life, I have learned to see where God would have me go next. Church is great, but it is SO important that we as women hear from God all on our own. If you’d like, feel free to put the top denominations or church history you would like to learn about in the comments below and we’ll try to accommodate 11 different doctrines/denominations/church history stories. We hope you will enjoy this portion of Theology Thursday and that it inspires you to explore your own church history story and most importantly, your relationship with Jesus.