I’m finally going to be taking some coursework at Duke Divinity School this year. The application includes a required field for specifying one’s denomination. Identifying my denomination has always been complicated for me as my Christian formation cannot be attributed to any single denomination, nor do my beliefs gently fall under any single branch of denominational identity.
My particular Christian heritage developed out of my father’s rigid dutch dispensationalism and my mother’s experience with the para-church organization known as Young Life. Having moved quite frequently during my youth, we attended a variety of churches which, more often than not, found us happily in a C&MA environment where missions and evangelism were primary theological themes.
While in high school, and on into college, I was heavily involved in Young Life as well as the student ministries of Fairhaven Church (C&MA) in Dayton, Ohio. Both of which emphasized individuality and decision making in relationship to one’s sinful human condition.
For the latter part of my undergrad I was a student in the Biblical Studies department at Colorado Christian University. An Evangelical liberal arts college where I became particularly engaged in the themes of holiness and sanctification in the Nazarene/Wesleyan tradition and pacifism, social justice, and environmental care through the Annabaptist tradition. After graduation I had the privilege of marrying my wife who has opened me to the mysteries of Catholic Mass and their reverence for the significance, and mystery, of Christs death and resurrection.
Needless to say, attempting to define my Christian formation under a denominational label is not only difficult, but misrepresentative. For that matter, most denomination discussions only serve to point out the differences, not the common threads.
The problem is that I understand that I should be working towards ordination in some particular denomination to foster Christian identity, community, and hopefully also a job! While at the same time I feel that the restrictions inherent in any denominational label may end up also restricting important practices of the ecumenical church that fall outside the scope of certain denominations.
[UPDATE: I have my eye on two traditions (one old, one fairly new) that appear to be seeking ecumenical and also historical elements of the word-wide body of Christ, though at this time I feel that further investigation is necessary.]
