About This Project's Originator

About This Project's Originator

  My name is Monty Dicksion.  I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  When I was 8, I moved with my parents and my older brother and sister to southern California.  For better or worse, I think of myself as a Californian.

  I had very little exposure to religion when I was growing up.  Between the ages of 8 and 9, I only seem to recall my parents taking me to church just a very few times.  At home, I do not recall that my parents talked about religious things very much at all, if ever.  I’ll put it in this way, that at the dinner table, we did not say grace before meals.

  When I was about 20 years old, I remember making the following decision:  I decided that I would accept that what the Bible said about Jesus was true and that Jesus was the Son of God.

  In my mind, at the time, I thought that made me a Christian.  I did not realize it then, but I later found out that all I had done was to give what is known as “intellectual assent,” and that that did not make me a Christian at all.

  But maybe it was a beginning – of sorts.  An interest in Christian things did seem make brief appearances in my life from time to time.  Otherwise, I still lived my life just the same as if I had never made even the superficial “intellectual assent.”  My life was essentially no different.  I was unchanged.

  I lived that way for some 35 years after making my intellectual assent.  I must say that as I look back on it now, something of Christianity did seem to be growing in me without me really being aware of it.  I was getting more of an interest in attending churches and in reading the Bible.

  After I was married, my wife and I moved to Texas, where we lived for about 18 years.  I recall that during those days, the Bible was still a great puzzle to me.  In those days, I still was not utilizing the help of anyone or any reference resource to help me understand the Bible.  I would just pick some book of the Bible at random to read.  I remember doing that with the book of Isaiah and was at a total loss to understand it whatsoever.

  In 2007, my wife and I moved to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.  It was there, towards the end of 2007, that something happened.

  What happened?  It was something that very few people understand.  Even not that many Christians, I regret to say, really understand it.  I know, because I’ve tried to tell people, whether they’re Christian or not, and they don’t seem to know what I’m talking about.

  So what was it?  Well, I have been told by some, “You decided to get religion in your old age!”

  But that’s not the way it happened.

  There were many things about me that changed and changed so drastically and so suddenly that it occurred within such a short span of time as to be practically instantaneous.  I prefer not to focus at this time on what, specifically, those changes were.  But I will say this:  that suddenly, the Bible took on a remarkable clarity to me.  It was as if I had been reading my Bible upside-down all those years and now someone had turned it right-side-up for me.

  Don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not saying that suddenly I knew all there was to know about Christianity.  But it’s that suddenly Christianity made sense to me.  Suddenly I could see that Christianity was extremely reasonable and rational.  This was something I never saw before.

  Since that day I can truly say that I have lived on learning more and more about Christianity.  I now live in southern California again.  And I am still learning.  I read and research everything I can that helps me to learn more about the Bible and about Christianity.

  I make it a fundamental standard of study to seek out the very best professionals that I can find on matters of Bible commentary, philosophy, comparative religions, Christian apologetics, theology and more.  One good method I have found for finding the best sources on these things is to learn who the experts themselves consider to be the best sources.  I look to see whose names they bring up over and over.  That has seemed to be a good rule of thumb to follow in general.

  Still, I do not wish to come across as if I think I am an expert myself when it comes to the study of the Bible and of Christianity.  I am just a student, so to speak.  I describe myself as a learner.

  But I will say this about my approach to study:  I work hard at it, and I pay attention.

  Today, I find myself to be essentially homebound.  It’s not that I am unable to leave my home at all.  I am able to get out, within certain restrictions and limitations.

  One of those limitations is that I am unable to attend a church.

  But being homebound did not mean that I ceased to be a Christian.  Look at it this way:

  I have documented an account where an atheist said to me

I am not a religious person.

Religion requires a mutually agreed text. I have none.

Religion requires a litany. I have none.

Religion requires a daily or weekly or perennial ceremony. I have none.

  According to this atheist’s criteria, he is not a religious person.  That is false.  Atheism is itself a belief system.  For example, if you do not believe there is a God, then you do believe there is no God.  That’s a belief system.  Atheism is the “I Don’t Believe In Religion” religion, and it comes with its own set of values and beliefs.

  That’s not all.  According to this atheist’s criteria, to be Christian means to observe all of the things he mentioned above.  That’s false.  Yes, Christianity does rely on the Bible as its authority for Christian truth claims.  But the Bible itself is not what Christianity is.  In addition, true Christianity does not demand any litany from its adherents.  Neither does true Christianity demand a daily or weekly or perennial ceremony.

  In other words, a person can be without all of those things he mentioned and still be a Christian.  That’s because true Christianity is not a code of ethics for one to follow.  Nor is true Christianity a philosophy for one to agree to.  In fact, true Christianity is not really even a religion.  True Christianity is a person – Jesus Christ.

  But many churches lay the blame as well that if a person is not attending church, then he or she is not a true Christian.  That’s not necessarily true either; it might be, but it not necessarily is.

  One way I know – and there are many ways – is that I have lately found myself unable to attend church, but I have not ceased to be a Christian.

  I would dearly love to not only attend a church but to be a member of one.  And I am sure that there are others out there who feel the same.

  As I’ve said elsewhere on this blog site, there are churches, though they are not that common, that do have programs to look into the needs of homebounds and shut-ins.  And there are civic organizations that do that as well.  What do they do?  They pay visits to the homebounds.  They might bring supplies or do errands for them or bring them reading materials.  They might even just spend time with the homebound person for the sake of alleviating loneliness.

  All of those things are important and noble.

  But there is something that they do not do:  They do not give the homebound person a church service to attend.  In this respect, homebound Christians are completely neglected.

  Homebound Christians – even though we are homebound – are still a part of what is known as “the invisible Church.”  We might be homebound, yet nevertheless, we are part of the set of believers that make up the Body of Christ.  And as such, we need the Church as much as anybody else.  And, do you know what?  The Church needs us too.

  Church for Homebounds sets out to meet both of these needs.  Maybe there are other entities out there somewhere that are doing what Church for Homebounds seeks to do.  For myself, I know of none.

  Church for Homebounds is an ambitious project and, I believe, is very much needed today.  I hope you will help to get the word out that Church for Homebounds is here.

     Thank you,

        Monty Dicksion