The church that we grew up in was primarily a fundamentalist white evangelical church. There were exceptions, as each church we attended was autonomous, but by and large the above description fits. Belief in the Bible and inerrancy of scripture is central to its understanding of faith and practice. Women are not permitted to teach or hold leadership positions. It condemns any sexual orientation outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. It ardently supports political candidates that are pro-life. And it holds that faith in Christ is the only path to salvation(no other religion is salvific and that even includes some christian denominations). This is, by no means, a comprehensive list, but I believe it is representative not only of the church we attended but much of evangelical christianity in America today.
Early in our marriage there was interest in doing mission work. Kimberly had participated in multiple campaigns to eastern Europe through Oklahoma Christian College. When we started dating she was scheduled to return for another summer visit. Despite my pleadings she departed for the summer long trip, and a few weeks later I had quit my job and followed her. I distinctly remember being sleep deprived and sipping cokes in the Vienna woods as I waited for Kimberly to return from the first campaign to Hungary in on July 4, 1986. That same year we wed and began preparations to return as missionaries to Hungary.
In our particular brand of evangelical christianity, all it really took to be a missionary was to raise funds from individual congregations. There was no mission board with which to apply and no educational requirement was needed. If you could raise the funds, you could be a missionary. There were a couple options if you did desire some formal training. You could go to a preacher's training school or a college that was affiliated with our particular denomination. Big surprise, we did neither. Based on a recommendation from an elder at our church in Stillwater, OK, we decided to go to a accredited school that had been a bible chair at the University of Texas at Austin. BTW, we found out within a few months after we married that Kimberly was expecting our 1st child.
Roughly 2 months before our first anniversary and 3 months before the birth of our first child, we had packed up everything and were heading to Austin, TX. Despite the mixed feelings I have had about the church we chose to invest so much of our lives, the 2 years spent in Austin were refreshing. The professors at that school had Phd's from prestigious universities like Yale, Union Theological, and Emory. Though their roots were in my particular denomination, they had embraced the broader theological scholarship and, in turn, encouraged us to explore our beliefs and the beliefs of the churches of which we had been a part. In addition, there were like 12 students in my class and we all had the same classes. The result was a community.
