Church

The saga of Laura Looks for a Church is, I think, drawing to a close.

For a while I've been going to Glasgow Elim. And it's been good in many ways. However, the Pastor is very much caught up in the 'Florida Outpouring' and, having watched one of the services there on God TV, I just got more and more uncomfortable about the whole 'movement'. To me, it doesn't appear to have reverence for God.

There were some other things wrong at Elim too. The Pastor would use ... um ... dubious language. Profanity, I suppose you would call it. The word in question is in common useage and probably isn't even considered a 'swear word' by the majority of people anymore. But since when do we conform to the pattern of the world? I found it inappropriate.

There were other things - coarse joking, saying 'magic' words over people who came forward for healing, lack of Biblical teaching, addition of man's (mis)information to what was taught from the Bible. It was all wrong. In my opinion. Do you know, I've been mulling this post for a few days and I was going to say something along the lines of: "Lots of little things were wrong and they all added up." But these are major issues I'm listing.

The long and the short of it is that the Elim Church and I have parted company. I have no peace about going there and a whole lot of peace about not. So I was back to Church shopping. Which is a horrible expression but what else can one call it? Actually, I didn't shop very hard. I quit Elim and didn't start going anywhere else. Maybe I needed time to clear my head from all the mumbo-jumbo?

But on Friday of last week, I found myself looking online at local Churches. Again. I was really quite dispirited about the whole thing. So I decided to lighten up a bit and took the Belief-o-Matic test. And, half in jest, I said to God: "OK - whatever this comes out with, that's what I'll go to." It gave me the highest score for 'Mainline to Conservative Christian' and the next highest for 'Brethren'. The two were virtually tied. I clicked on the 'relevant' links the site gave and found out that I really do believe what other people, similarly categorised, believe. The denomination that kept coming up was Evangelical. And there's a Church called 'Cartsbridge Evangelical Church' near here. I've been a couple of times before and really, really liked it. So I started surfing over their site and over the sites they link to. And one of the links took me to a directory listing in which Cartsbridge's denomination is given as 'Brethren.'

Now, I'm not going to start trumpeting about having a message from God. But I will tell you that I have such peace about attending there regularly. I went on Sunday and it was really good - everything I would want in a Church, so far as I can see. Additionally, my family have no problem with me going there. In fact, my mother used to go to a Brethren Church when she was a student! This is compared to the Elim Church which I very carefully never told my parents I was going to because they'd have had kittens. And, as I realise now, rightly so.

Anyway. I think this is where God is placing me. I'm not going to step forward to make a commitment until I've been going regularly for a goodly while (I'm thinking a year wouldn't be unreasonable) but I'm so glad that the search appears to be over!

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?

No Church?

It's looking rather like I won't make it to Church today. I intended to go to the Evening Service at Cartsbridge but I have a migraine that isn't responding to pain meds so I think I may be slinking back to bed when I've done the dinner dishes. I'm rather disappointed as I'm dressed and ready to go and was looking forward to worshipping. I know it's just as possible to worship while in bed with a headache but it's not quite the same thing!

No Church Today

I am disappointed. Last weekend, I went to the very excellent worship service at Cartsbridge Evangelical and I'd intended to go again this morning. I even set the alarm! Unfortunately, I've woken with a migraine and so will be going nowhere. I feel frustrated and irritated with myself. Because I really wanted to go. And, instead, I'm in pain and craving caffeine which is something I'm trying to avoid. The avoidance has probably caused the migraine. It is possible that I will be better later and can go to the Evening Service. But I'm still sulky about missing the one I wanted to go to. Sometimes I'm such a child!