The Hunt Is On
It’s been eleven Sunday’s since we left our last church. The hunt for a new one has been less than satisfactory. Of course, in those eleven weeks, we’ve experienced only 5 churches and skipped a service all together a grand total of seven weeks (7+5=12 weeks, but one of the churches we ‘experienced’ was online, which we quickly eliminated from our list of candidates. It was kinda like Huckaby… nice to think about but never really had a chance anyway 
).
So I thought this week I’d briefly catch you up on our progress. I will not mention church names, nor the pastor’s name, but I will let you know the pros and cons for each in order of the places we have visited. But first, today lets look at a little background on our upbringing as this will play a role in our church hunt.
Jeremy: From my earliest memories of church until my 19th year I attended non-denomination charismatic churches. I know saying “charismatic” leads to some very strong stereotypes: Speaking in tongues, odd dancing, random outbursts of people talking in the middle of worship, long services, people falling, pastors blowing, and just flat out weirdness. In a word: “Correct” … Not that I partook in all or agreed with all; in fact, most of it annoyed me. I know from the outside looking in, it seems so out of whack and out of touch with reality. Sometimes… nay… a lot of times it is, but there are a plethora of good solid biblical truths that I learned from being in that environment that I have not seen / heard much of since I left the whole charismatic scene.
Since then, I have been a part of modern, edgy, culturally relevant churches.
Dionna: She grew up Church of Christ and was so until we started dating. Hard Core Traditional CoC. We’re talking no instruments, conservative, letter of the law type of people. In the early part of the movement, the CoC caught a lot of flack for claiming they were the only true Church. Dionna thought that was preposterous until I showed it to her in some literature that was still available to read in one of their classrooms (for the record, the CoC does not hold that view anymore). She was Bible Quiz champion like 5 years in a row or something on a national level, she thought the “Joy Bus” was something every Christian should know about, and her mom was not a fan of me for the sole reason that i was not CoC. But BY FAR the CoC people are the nicest group of Christians I have been around.
Since then Dionna has traveled in the same circles as I have, a few years of charismatic, followed by the culturally-relevant focused churches.
I don’t want to make this entry too long, so I will stop here. Later today or tomorrow I’ll talk about what we’re looking for in a Church, what has brought us to this point, etc.
Until then, i’m curious who else out there is in a completely different environment than their original church upbringing… anybody? (don’t leave me hanging looking like a numskull with zero comments!).
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considering that you and l lived in the same household for those 19 years, I have the EXACT same experience and opinions about our upbringing. Josh grew up Baptist, and since marrying me he attended the charismatic and then, later, the “modern, edgy, culturally relevant churches.” Our last church was Baptist, but only in connections; it was never advertised as Baptist and you wouldn’t really know it unless you asked.
In Ukraine, the denomination we associate with is almost always the third question we’re asked, right after our names and why we’re here. We’ve learned to say, “well, we’re interdenominational, working with all churches. We glean from all denominations but ultimately rely on the Bible to guide our beliefs.”
upbringing = evangelical, somewhat non-denominational yet with a residual anglican influence church. now, this is where we attended on sundays. as far as the environement of my upbringing, it was inter-denominational (though labeled non-denominational), faith-based, Christ-centered, mission-focused.
current = small, southern baptist (bring on the stereotypes…I cannot deny many of them!) trying to “merge” faithful traditional with trained young evangelical
the Lord knows why He places us where He does…choose not because of labels or styles, but be obedient to His call, for He has a local body that will grow you and that you will help grow.
I grew up in a Pentacostal Church. We wore dresses and didn’t cut our hair. My dad actually played in the quartet at church and we had nightly bible study at home. Which is totally weird to how my family is now. Something happened when I was around 10 years old and my parents stopped going to church all together. I went to church with friends after that. Mostly baptist churches but in high school found myself being baptized in the Church of Christ. Then after high school I kinda drifted and moved a lot. I was really involved in this Non-demoninational Community Church in Frisco when I had to move yet again. When I met my husband we started to attend his church which was Episcopal. This was something completely different than anything I had been to. I wasn’t fond but went with him.
I think I have been a just go with the flow kind of church goer. I’ve moved around soooo much and when I get back to Texas will probably go through the whole process of finding a church that is right for me. My belief currently is that as long as you say your prayers and try to live for God then going to church is just extra bonus points!