Before I go much further into this story, I need to stop and take a moment to explain some key concepts.
The world of evangelicals is filled with their own language and concepts for things. It’s hard to talk about life in the evangelical church without understanding these terms.
These are terms that I learned really early in life. If you know this stuff, it’s okay to skip this part. I won’t be mad. ☺️
There’s Bible verses on each concept to explain where it came from. I took almost all of them directly from the Baptist Faith and Message, which is the actual doctrine of the Southern Baptist church. I quoted the New International Version (NIV) because that’s the one I used most of the time. (You are free to look them up in whatever version you wish, however!)