The Search for a New Church Continues

When Jill and I made the decision to move to Raleigh, we thought that it might be difficult to find a new church, and we were right – we have visited a half dozen churches so far, and I have listened to sermons from about two dozen more, but we haven’t yet found a church that seems right for us. Of the six churches that we have visited, two have been promising, but one of these is probably too far away to be practical, and we have some concerns about the other. At first, I was excited about the process of finding a new church, as it meant that I would have the opportunity to hear new preaching and meet new Christians. However, I have felt it necessary to evaluate the churches that I have visited, and this has been an unpleasant experience for me – I do not like passing judgment on the qualities of a church’s teaching, music, or services, especially when I feel that I must pass negative judgments on these things. Unfortunately, I do not see how I can avoid this process of evaluation. If I were Catholic, or rather a practicing Catholic, I could simply look up the nearest church – nothing more would be required than that the church be Catholic and near my home. At any rate, this is how many Catholics find a new church, and I expect that many Christians in other denominations choose a new church in the same way. Don't misunderstand me. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with this process, but things are somewhat more complicated for Jill and me given our theological views.

Though I still identify as Catholic, I haven’t attended Catholic services regularly for several years, and I am pretty Reformed in much of my thinking about theology. I am not absolutely opposed to attending a Catholic church, but I have a very strong preference to worship in a Reformed church. However, there are many different Reformed churches, and while I have a strong liking for Presbyterian churches, I also feel that I should be open to attending a non-Presbyterian church. Jill was raised Presbyterian, but she is more open to denomination than I am. She has agreed to restrict our search to Reformed churches for the time being, and I am grateful for this, but I am also somewhat uneasy about it – if it were entirely up to me, I probably wouldn’t consider a non-Reformed church, at least right away; but, I am married to Jill, and I want her to have an equal say in whatever decision we make about where we will attend. Actually, Jill and I shouldn’t make the decision alone – we should make it together with the Lord, or rather we should allow ourselves to be led by the Lord to that place, if such there be, that He would like to place us. It may be that the Lord would be happy to see us at any one of a number of churches, but still we should seek His direction. And we have. We have been praying about this whole process, and I believe that the Lord has provided us with some concrete guidance. In particular, I think that He has guided us not to a particular congregation (at least not yet), but that He has recently nudged us to approach the process with various criteria in mind. This post is already quite long, so I won’t attempt to describe those criteria now, but I will blog about them later. Let me wrap up by saying that while the process of finding a new church has been difficult, and I don’t expect it to end soon, I do feel that the Lord has provided some definite direction to our search, and for this I am very thankful. Praise be to God and to His Holy Name, forever and ever. Amen.