Choosing a Church Community

This week my thoughts have turned to church and what people really want in a church community. We have just left a church that we have been a part of for the last 6 years so it seems appropriate to me that we do some soul searching regarding a church community. Finding Your Community in Denomination: Most people I know begin their search for a church by looking first at the churches in their community that are of a certain denomination. If you are a Baptist, you go looking for a Baptist church. If you are a Pentecostal you probably go looking for a Pentecostal church. This would be a great place to start except for the fact that many mainline denominational churches are not open and affirming. Many of my friends and myself included cannot just go out and decide to attend all the Baptist or Methodist or Church of God’s in our area because most of those churches are only open and welcoming to their own kind. If you are white, straight and conservative then you most likely can choose any of those churches. If you are not those things then your church searching gets narrowed down quite bit right from the start. So if looking for a church community by denomination is not going to work where do you turn next? Finding Your Community in Style: If I cannot choose my church community based on denomination then I can begin by looking for churches that have a style of worship that fits my own. For me, that style would involve contemporary worship with modern worship music. I would also look for a church that had relevant teaching and preaching. The teaching/preaching would need to be from an educated viewpoint. I grew up in churches that did not have educational requirements for those that pastored or preached. As a teenager I began attending a Presbyterian Church where the pastors were educated and I found that I preferred and educated Pastor to one that was not educated. As I look in my community for such churches it becomes clear that I am most likely not welcome in those churches either. They are heavy on the “family” values and they cater most of their activities and services to that wonderful American family of Mom, Dad and 2.2 children and maybe a cat or dog as a pet. It is probably helpful if you live in a nice sub-division and fall firmly in the middle class range of income. When my friends show up to these churches they are welcomed until they realize that the guy they were coming with is not just their best buddy and the little girl they bring is their daughter and not their niece or nephew. So much for looking for a church with a contemporary worship service. So it seems that I cannot just look for a church that matches my preferred denomination. I cannot simply go looking for a church that matches the style of worship that I prefer either. What happens is that I begin searching for a church based on who will let me in the door. Something inside of me says this is not how we should have to find a church. I find myself in a church that is much further away that what I would like to drive. I find myself in a church that sings songs that I don’t necessarily like. The preaching may or may not be anywhere near what my beliefs are. They have rituals that I don’t agree with and their liturgy doesn’t quite match what I believe but hey, they let me in the door. So here I am in a church that I would never have chosen based on doctrine, theology, style of worship or use of liturgy. Where do I go from here? How do I find a place in this church? Will I find a place? Are my thoughts welcome here? What happens when I join the church and have to agree to their basic beliefs that may be in direct standing to my own personal beliefs? I am going to explore some of these questions in my blog in the coming days. I think there are some important issues that need discussed regarding what happens when people join a church based not on mutual agreements in doctrine and belief and worship style but rather they join because it is the only church within driving distance that will welcome them without asking them to change.