Captain Schmideo, the first nonJW memorial service I attended blew me away because it was not an infomercial for the 'faithless and diseased slobbers' and the deceased was actually remembered (memorialized) and not with just a sentence or two bragging how many years he had pioneered or served as an elder.
The one thing that struck a sour note with me was the assertion that was made by one of the ministers (twice) was that if anyone in the audience was not a "Christian", they needed to be prepared for a destination after death that was not nearly as fun and joyful as the deceased had just moved onto. And of course, I am sure that "Christian" meant "Southern Baptist".
As a member of the Southern Baptist Convention I can assure you that Christian does not mean Southern Baptist. It means a follower of Christ. The original Greek word was a phrase that means "Little Christs" and was used by nonbelievers as a demeaning and derogatory phrase.
I have a friend who was a Jehovah's Witness but left the cult arfter she was saved one night talking on the phone to one orf her Christian friends. She became a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. A few years later she joined the Catholic church because she liked the worship services' rigid structure and had been familiar with a religion that incorporates a rigid structure in everything for all of her life until she became a Christian.
She is still a Christian because denomination doesn't matter to a Christian. The only difference in Christian denominations is the methods they use in their worship services. FYI, the Methodist denomination was named after the method of worship that John Wesley with his brother Charles Wesley and fellow clergyman George Whitfield founded which is known as Methodism.
The message is the same - salvation by grace through faith in Jesus, not from works.
It's really nice that you paid your respects to your teacher friend's father.
