My Church Hopping Experience

So recently, I have been on the search of a new church to attend. The church that I have attended has been going through much transition and some of the people, unfortunately unbeknownst to them, have hurt me badly and feel like this is the time to move away from some of the dysfunction and have a fresh start.

Now before I go farther,  I want to state that I am not the biggest fan of church hopping. For some people, it is an awesome experience and if that's your thing, great. Church hopping for me is something that is such a stressful situation and causes me anxiety. I thrive in community and roaming around by myself and trying to decide if this is where you want to continue your growth is just not a fun experience for me (and this is coming from an extrovert).

A lot of this anxiety is due to the fact that I have really strong beliefs that I won't falter on. For example, I am very egalitarian or a simpler term for it is biblical equality. I believe men and women can hold the same positions in the church. In other words, women and men can be pastors. There is no gender limitations. Now why would that cause me anxiety? Cause many of the churches my friends attend are not egalitarian. There are other issues that I do not agree with at these churches too, but I'm not going into details with that because that is my number 1 issue. I don't want to start to be active in a church and not be allowed to lead a class for both males and females. I just find a lot of issues there.

Now going back to my church hopping experience.

I have been searching for churches and checking out church websites and seeing what each church believes. I have pretty much decided very early on that music was not going to play a major part in my decision due to the fact that most churches are not going to have a worship band like Bethel or sound like Hillsong United. If the music is done well and the people leading were not putting on a show, then I would approve.

Another rule I had was to not go to a church just because it seems like the "popular church" to go to if you are of a certain age. A lot of my friends attend mega-churches in the area. I have nothing against mega-churches and have actually attended mega-churches before and really enjoyed them. But in the phase where I am in my life, I don't just want the vastness of these churches because that's not who I am. It's partially because I want to stay true to myself and partially because all the mega-churches in the area where I live aren't egalitarian.

So, I have been church hopping the last two weeks and have had two completely different experiences at these two churches (both United Methodist).

The first one was about 10 min from where I live in the town right near where I live. I honestly had written off the church before I had attended. I didn't think I would like it, but a friend of mine attended there and dragged myself there. I walked in hesitantly and found my friend. I was greeted a couple of times when I was searching for my friend. She and I sat next to each other during the service and it was actually pretty good. The music was okay, but I could tell the people weren't doing it to put on a show and the sermon was excellent. When I left church that day, I told people that I forgot how good Sunday morning worship can be.

This past Sunday I went to another church that I was honestly giving a little more clout. I thought that this was the church I would start attending. To be frank, I don't think I will be attending that church for a long time, if ever. I felt very awkward during the service, especially during the time of greeting when I had to go up to different members of the congregation and greet (talk about a friendly environment when I was being friendlier then the congregation). Also, the music was just plain bad and the sermon had no substance. I was so disappointed walking out of the church, because I had heard it was so much better than what I experienced. Now let me specify, the people were nice and weren't doing anything bad, they just weren't welcoming in the way of convincing me to join them.

Now tomorrow, I have been debating whether to check out the first church again to make sure it wasn't a fluke thing or try another church. I'm thinking I may go to the first church again and the following week trying another church.

I understand that this process of church hopping will more than likely be a long process of trying to discover a good fit. I'm not looking for the perfect church, cause I know that doesn't exist. I just want to find a church that isn't dying. I don't think that's too much to ask for, because I just want to find a community where I can grow in my faith and be able to help with the ministries that they are doing.

Have you ever been church hopping? Let me know your experience with it!