Thank you for sharing this personal experience. I can relate to it even though my situation was quite different. I'm sure others here can also relate and are encouraged that they are not alone.
I was raised and attended a Christian church (similar to C of C). I do not recall ever hearing the Gospel.
In my situation, I attended a Baptist church and never heard the gospel within its walls until about five years after I became a believer.
(I had been baptized in that church by the way and no one talked to me about salvation.)
Strangely enough, as a child, the Sunday School teachers hammered into us that baptism did not save, yet at the same time, pushing us into "walking the aisle" and asking to be baptized. The pressure was intense. I was even called out by name in Sunday School on Sunday morning on more than one occasion as the only child who had not been baptized and was headed for Hell if something happened to me. My friends advised me to just get baptized since it didn't mean anything and everything would be fine.
For my part, I couldn't figure out how "walking the aisle" as the organ played made any difference to God, since I also knew baptism didn't save. I held out - because of a stubborn personality and an intense hatred of being pressured and manipulated - and graduated into the youth group where there was suddenly no pressure. (My mother had been told that the Sunday School teachers tried to get everyone baptized before they entered into the youth program because it was almost certainly too late then.)
Of my friends who were baptized in those early years, the only ones I know who are still involved in church has significant spiritual experiences or simply recognized that they had never heard the gospel and came to faith at a later date and had their lives energized and transformed.
I started going with a girl that went to the Bible church, she talked me into going to the evening service one night and the pastor led me to Christ.
One of my first youth trips was an overnight trip to Houston to attend a "coffeehouse ministry" and then visit an amusement park the next day. I had no idea what a coffeehouse ministry was, but there were girls and an amusement park involved, so I was in!
That night I heard the message of Jesus explained very simply and clearly - Jesus was calling me into a life with Him - and no nonsense about walking aisles or baptism. I responded immediately to that clear word and THEN "walked that aisle" and was baptized. Those acts suddenly had meaning.
It wasn't until about five years after that when I realized that my church was not helping me in my spiritual journey and I took control of my own faith. What they had taught me collapsed instantly in the face of an atheist that was close to me. I because an agnostic - although one who believed he had someone met Jesus, unless that was simply a trick of the mind - and started over with building my own body of knowledge about religious experience and faith. By the time I finalized the foundation of my faith, I realized I was also being called into service to others who face the same issues. I responded to that call 30 years ago this month and have been greatly blessed by God.
