Well I’m due to move into my new house in a month so this means some serious church surfing coming up.
In my experience church recommendations have always been along the lines of…
Why don’t you check out xxx they’ve got a really good music ministry
Or
Why don’t you check out xxx they’ve got a really big youth population
Or
Why don’t you check out xxx the pastor is interested in getting involved in the wider community.
Unfortunately a church with all these 3 qualities could be banal, self serving waste of time. It could be lots of young people sitting around singing songs with no intention of reaching out to others with a pastor thinking that would be a nice thing to do.
Oh… and the other one is when people say “the first time I walked into xxx I felt so welcomed” Well I felt pretty welcomed the last time I walked into a furniture store but I wouldn’t want to do that every Sunday.
So how should one judge a church? I’m not sure. I’d love to hear any suggestions.
The one question that has always been my first question, which I have never had a positive answer for, is “How would a deeply spiritual non-Xn person looking to explore Xn spirituality and Faith fit in to this church?”
2 comments:
how to judge a church?
i haven't read more than a couple of your posts so don't intend to pretend i know much about where you're coming from. how's that for a disclaimer?
my guess is that talking about judging a church and framing the question around other people's suggestions about what's good about a church - youth population, music, whatever - sounds no different from 'what makes a good restaurant?' or 'what makes a good sporting team to follow' and there's just something about that that makes me deeply uneasy.
church for me is about community and participation. in a way it's like saying - it can only be evaluated from the inside. i know that kind of thinking has all kinds of holes in it, but to me that sounds like a more authentic starting point that judging a church from the outside.
what on earth do i mean? a church community changes once anyone new joins it (a debatable point, i'm sure, in practice) as a new part of the whole body joins the subset. each member makes a difference. evaluation only makes sense to me in the context whether a particular person's gifts and skills are welcomed and included as time goes on. i guess its almost like - ask not what a church community can do for you...kind of thing, as that just reeks of the more negative elements of consumerism and capitalism, in my opinion.
making any sense?
schmendrick (that's me, not name-calling)
I judge a church by only two things... #1 Does the congregation seem to love and teach people to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, strength and their neighbor as themselves (Luke 10:27). #2 are the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) present?
After that, the rest is just fluff.
Anyway, that's my two cents. God Bless!! :)
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