Who is cotton eyed Joe anyway?

Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, cotton-eyed Joe? I'll admit, I really have no idea what those song lyrics mean, but when I tried to think of some witty intro to this post that was the first thing that popped into my mind. I really hope that song isn't about something offensive!

These last few weeks I have been introduced to several new terms such as apostolic succession and transubstantiation. After having some conversations with some friends, and spending several hours reading various websites (a lot of those hours on wikipedia), as well as reading various facebook conversations, I have come to one conclusion: I can no longer avoid the topic of church history.

You see, history was one of my least favourite subjects in school. It was something that was rarely discussed in my house when I was growing up. And to add to that, church history.

So now when all of these terms are being passed around, and I have never heard of them, despite attending church the last ten years of my life, I'm really starting to wonder about what happened between the time the period that the Bible covers to where the church is at today. What about all the denominations? What about the reformation? Who were the early church fathers, and what did they have to say?

I'm also curious about church denominations. Seeing that I had only stumbled upon a Pentecostal church, which is the only church I have chosen to attend (outside of a campus church which is where I initially attended, also by circumstance, considering I never went to post-secondary school), I think it is important for me to ensure I should be going to a Pentecostal church.

All this thinking lately has left me with an uncomfortable feeling - one where my stomach doesn't quite feel settled. I'm sure it's all of the "what if" type questions that I have been asking myself lately, because I know that at some point I'm going to draw some sort of conclusion - maybe I will come to the conclusion that I belong at a Pentecostal church after all, but then again, maybe not, at which point I'll need to find a new church to belong to.

In the end, I believe that this is a necessary step in growing my relationship with Jesus, as He is the one I love, and I want to be faithful to Him. I want to go where He wants me to be. I just need to figure out where that is.

As for cotton eyed Joe, I'll let someone else figure out what's up with that. I want to learn more about the church's history.