All About Church

I'm not very comfortable with 'shopping for a Church.' But this is what I'm finding myself doing. It's a bit like having a 'choice' of school or hospital - I think that your local one should be good enough that a choice is unnecessary.

I'm a member of my local Parish Church. It's a very traditional, Church of Scotland, presbyterian Church. We're going to call it 'Church G'. It's unlikely that any of you will have heard of it but I'm about to be non-complimentary so I shall be coy. Church G offers one Sunday morning service and occassional evening services. As I've said, it's traditional which, to me means you follow an Order of Service which looks like this:

Stand up. Sing hymn. Sit down. Pray. Stand up. Sing hymn. Sit down. Sermon by Minister. Stand up. Sing hymn. Time to go home.

I don't particularly enjoy this kind of service. It's a personal preference thing though - I don't think God's particularly bothered. But the hymns are from the 18th and 19th centuries and don't make any sense to me and I don't feel I can worship when I'm singing something I barely understand. And then the Sermons ... Church G has a very kind, very nice, female Minister. For the record, I don't have a strong opinion about the Ordination of women. But her preaching ... It's terrible. She sounds apologetic and really doesn't have anything much to say. So, after a service at Church G, I come away empty when I should be filled and, worse, I don't feel that I've worshipped God in any meaningful way.

I've been feeling this way about Church G for a long time and, about a year ago, I visited Church C, basically because it'd just been renovated and I wanted a look-see. Church C is also Church of Scotland, presbyterian. It offers a traditional Sunday morning service, a contemporary one and a contemporary evening service. Contemporary in this context means the same stand up/sing/sit down kind of worship but with modern hymns and a praise band rather than an organ. Much more my cup of tea. Church C has two Ministers both of whom appear to be passionate about God and don't apologise for it. The people are friendly and I've always been welcomed there. The preaching addresses everyday issues and is faithful to the Word. But it seems wrong to me to stay within the Church of Scotland but to go to a different Parish. The Churches are meant to be active in their communities (and, to be fair, both of them are) and I think I should be serving in my home town - not a few miles down the road.

So I started visiting local Churches of different denominations. And we come to Church CB. This is an Evangelical Church which states that the Bible is the Word of God and that one must be baptised by total immersion. They have a morning communion service every Sunday followed by a 'family service' and then a teaching service in the evening. I've been to the morning communion service and an evening service. The communion service was like nothing I've experienced before: it's a kind of 'free-form' service where the men are invited to contribute and suggest what the congregation does as they're led by the Holy Spirit. The evening service was 'normal' althouh I found it a bit odd that one of the Elders gave the Sermon. I wonder what training they receive before being allowed to preach?

The last Church I've visited is Church E. And it really is a break from the old routine. It's a Pentacostal Church which appears to try and model itself on the early Church as described in Acts. I've been there before a number of years ago and attended their Alpha course. There are two modern services every Sunday and a service on a Saturday night. They're led by a worship leader with the songs running into one another and the prayers as the leader is led. The preaching was very good and very relevant and it was so good to see God worshipped and acting within the community. Worshipping last Saturday was the first time in a long time I've really felt I was worshipping rather than going through the motions. The down-side for Church E is that my family would be against it. They're good Church of Scotland folks and distrust the new ways of worshipping. They even enjoy the 18th Century hymns! Which is great. For them. The other thing is that this Church is the furthest away - about 20 mins by car.

So I've been shopping for a Church. I want to go where God wants me. I realise I've written a whole lot here about what I like and want. But God seems rather silent on the subject. So, my question is: How did you choose the Church you're in?