Someone who comes to the door of the Church is indeed asked to give everything up in order to become one with Christ. It is not expected of him that he will instantly be able to shed all of his baggage of sin and worldly attachments. But it is expected that he will commit to repentance.
My Foundations of the Orthodox Faith series is now fully online at Ancient Faith Radio. This series represents an attempt at a sort of catechism—approaching the faith from four foundational angles: the revelation of God to man, authority in the spiritual life, worship, and morality. As with most of my work, I attempted to keep these talks fairly free of religious jargon, approaching the…