Searching for God Knows Which Church
Finding a church in a new town—ugh. In a city with 200,000+ population, my husband and I have more than 300 churches to consider. Harder than shopping for shoes when your feet hurt.
Why? In church, a visitor enters as a spectator rather than a participant.
Behind the warm welcome to newcomers beats the hearts of a roomful of sinners, of whom I am chief. Why should I expect more of a church than my own life attests?
Finding a church in a new town—ugh. In a city with 200,000+ population, my husband and I have more than 300 churches to consider. Harder than shopping for shoes when your feet hurt.
Why? In church, a visitor enters as a spectator rather than a participant.
Behind the warm welcome to newcomers beats the hearts of a roomful of sinners, of whom I am chief. Why should I expect more of a church than my own life attests?
Questions I ask myself: What about a particular church invites my participation? How does this congregation seek to worship God? Do I show up to serve or be served?
Styles are changing. Worship leaders rather than music ministers share the platform with pastors who preach. Many churches with more than one service offer a choice: contemporary or traditional. Typically that has more to do with music than message. I still think it’s schizophrenic.
Yet as believers congregate on Sundays, we seek to participate in unbroken fellowship with people like ourselves who have heard the old, old story second-hand but believed the truth in first person. That story then has to work its way out in the lives of individuals who do not forsake assembling together, no matter how icky it feels at times.
A collective of diverse individuals unite for an hour or two each week to celebrate salvation.The church exists to teach the Bible, to challenge one another to love and good works, to exhort and rebuke, to minister to people within the community and without, and to fortify its members to face a world increasingly hostile to Christians. Church family matters.
How church came to look the way it does today baffles me; it’s still morphing. But life manifests itself by survival. Christians reproduce.
And though churches may never get a second chance to make a first impression, I have decided that instead of singing Bono’s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for,” better lyrics for my dilemma, “Is this church looking for me?” God gives believers gifts to contribute within the community of faith.
What if it turned out that satisfaction correlates proportionately to commitment? Like a good marriage, compatibility counts.
It’s a choice we keep making: give church a chance.
6 Comments
Anonymous
Chuch Shopping
I like your point that it should be more about our service in Christ’s church rather than what church does for us. And it’s true most people only meet with their church 1-2 hrs a week. I wonder if that’s what God intends for us? I wonder if we can truly encourage one another in the faith in that amount of time?
As a pastor’s wife, I didn’t get to choose my church, but I can see now that it was the place for me. The place of God’s choosing really is the place of His blessing.
Carol Fruge
re. Church shopping
Thanks for your comment. You are right. The goal should be to let God choose for us.
Sue Bohlin
Such a better question to ask!
>>better lyrics for my dilemma,
Carol Fruge
re. A better question
You say this so well, Sue. I think it was Dr. Boice who I first heard suggest that God gives gifted individuals to his church. How wonderful that you feel that your church is a gift to you.
Meanmommie
Church Shopping
I especially liked your comment about do I show up to serve or be served. As a long-time member in my home church, I am exceedingly distressed at how people come and go, even after having placed membership. Teaching has not changed, nor doctrine, but people or “programs” become a bigger “draw” than the word of God. Here in California, we are as fickle about our faithfulness to our church bodies, as we are to our spouses. Nuff said.
Gwynne Johnson
A place to love
Hoping you sense that place prepared for you during this earthly sojourn.