A commenter pointed out that my first entry made it sound like I had gone from a liberal church to a conservative one.  Yes, that's how it started out.  Actually, the Presbyterian church I belonged to was moderate.  It was after my charismatic experience there that I became unwelcome in mainstream churches.  It was a close Christian friend who pronounced the Presbyterians "dead."  He said, "Why not try out the Baptist church I attend?"

And so I did.  It was a Southern Baptist Church.  I joined the youth group there, and the first thing they did was declare my Presbyterian baptism by pouring invalid.  Although I didn't really believe it, I had to get dunked in the Atlantic Ocean to be a part of that church.  So, that was two baptisms I had endured so far.  When I told the youth leader about the charismatic experience, which drove my Christian life for many years, he told me that "Tongues have ceased," and showed me the Love chapter in 1 Corinthians.  It reads, "As for tongues, they shall cease."  It also says, "Knowledge will pass away"  So I figured since knowledge was still with us, these passages referred to the second advent, but I kept quiet.  I was a new Christian and figured they knew a lot more than I did.  But Paul also wrote, "I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than all of you," and, "Don't forbid speaking in tongues."

So I moved on, to a small church in south Florida that was involved with the leaders of the Shepherding, or Discipleship movement.  I became premillineal, but always had a hard time with the idea of the secret Rapture of the church.  I kept quiet about that, too.  It was already beginning - although I believed, and still believe in the charismata, premillenial dispensationalism made no sense to me, and I was beginning to doubt the theology behind Shepherding as well.  From my intense study of the Bible, I couldn't find precedence for these things.  I didn't say anything about it because of my youth.  How could they be wrong?  They had a huge following, and the leaders of the movement, Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, Charles Simpson, Don Basham, and Ern Baxter - they all shared a sense of humor, which made for easy listening.  How could so many Christian leaders be wrong in their thinking?  

It was in the Shepherding movement that I first started hearing "suggestions" about what kind of movies or television I should watch, and stopped going for a couple of years.  They also had things to say about how we should handle our finances, and emphasised tithing.  But then, they started in on what a married couple was allowed to do in the privacy of their bedroom.  My first wife and I rejected this out of hand.  We kept it to ourselves.  

The Shepherding Movement consisted mostly of churches pastored by men with no theological degrees at all - my new pastor had a degree in English.  However, we were allowed and encouraged to freely express the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  I was happy about that, because I experienced many gifts of the Spirit.  I felt that was a theological change for the better, and my belief in Holy Spirit baptism was accepted there, and so was I.  I suppose I was looking for a spiritual family that would have me.  

During this time I was exposed to a lot of teaching from the Shepherding movement.  Their primary doctrine: committed relationships within a hierarchical framework.  The men in Ft. Lauderdale were at the top, and my own church was two levels down from there, ultimately under the discipleship of Charles Simpson.  It was like Amway goes to church.  Our church tithed to a pastor who tithed to Charles Simpson.

On the side, I had been listening to this guy urging me to quit my church and attend a United Pentecostal Church - the "Jesus Only" people.  He asked about my baptism.  I told him I had been immersed, but he pressed me further.  He asked me what words the pastor used when he baptized me.  I told him: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  He told me I was not a monotheist.  He showed me the verse in which Jesus says, "I and the Father are one," then, a verse that referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ.  He said, "See?  Jesus is the Father; is the Son, is the Holy Spirit."  Then, he took me to Revelation and showed me the verse that talks about the throne of God.  It reads, "One sat on the throne."  He said, that's Jesus on the throne.  Next came baptism.  He showed me a number of scriptures in Acts that portrayed the Apostles baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus.  So, I was baptized in this guy's swimming pool in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Hey, I wasn't taking any chances with eternal salvation.  Baptism #3.

The Shepherding concept was invasive.  Leaving the movement was equivalent to divorce.  If you left one shepherd because you didn't like the guy, the new shepherd was ordered to send you back to your original shepherd.  We were required to open our lives completely to our shepherd.  When we made a major life decision, we were required to ask permission and wisdom from our pastors.

By this time