The teenage version of me would be very shocked to find me in the Reformed faith. To be fair, my teenage self didn’t really understand what it meant to be a Reformed Christian. I grew up in a Christian home with two Christian parents who taught me from a young age what the gospel was and what was most important in life. They both showed me through their everyday life what it looks like to live a Christ honoring life. I grew up knowing what I needed to do to have salvation in Christ Jesus.

We attended a non-denominational church; my parents had started attending there before they got married and their wedding ceremony was at this church too. Through my whole upbringing I went to the same church, a church where the gospel was preached every Sunday, a church we all loved, lots of fellow believers who were very welcoming and some of these people I can still call my friends today.

I was vaguely aware there were different denominations within Christianity, but I didn’t really understand what made them different from each other and why some people would have such heated discussions about the differences from what I observed. In my mind I saw Christianity as a whole, we all believe the same simple message which is the message of salvation in Christ: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Growing up in the church, I always felt like everyone was always asking each other, “so when did you come to faith?” Or “how did you get saved?”

While they didn’t mean any harm by these questions, I still remember going to sleep some nights thinking of these questions because even though I know I was saved and a Christian who believed, I couldn’t figure out the exact time I turned my life around and started living for Christ. It always scared me because I would constantly question myself and my own faith, “but what if I’m not saved because I can’t remember when it happened, when the moment took place?”

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Priscilla Tjoelker | “Complicated Life, Simple Faith: A Reformation Story” | November 9, 2024

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