Looking for a new deonomination or church .... - Page 2

[indie]

Originally Posted by Snugglebunnymama

I was assuming that the OP would know to ask upfront..... IME, "non-denominational" churches are rarely *completely* non-denominational; if you dig deep enough, you'll find their "affiliation".

Unless they are trying hard to hide it from you. I wasn't the only one who was fooled. Hopefully my experience is not common.


Ironically, aprildawn, my bad church experience was with a church that I found via theooze.com. But there are good churches there too. You just need to be discerning. Likewise, you can't assume things about a congregation just because they are a part of a denomination. There are so many variations.

[indie]

Babyvol, it just occurred to be from your name that you're probably in TN. If you are in the Nashville area message me and I can give you the low down on churches we've visited when we were looking.

In general even some of the liberal churches in TN lean more conservative than elsewhere in the U.S. My experience in the Episcopal Church here is that there is a mix of viewpoints on things like abortion and homosexuality.

[genifer]

BabyVol... Im not sure what everyone else has already said to answer your op, Ive only skimmed the other posts, but wanted to ask if you've prayed about this issue ... Im not assuming you havent or anything, but, well Ill just tell you how I go about finding a church. Ive moved around a lot in the last 10 years, since becoming a christian and in that time Ive spent probably equal amounts of time out of church as I have IN the church. And I always take my time to consider going back to church prayerfully. Ive never been to a church that I agree with on everything, I dont believe its out there, but Ive never been to a church where I strongly disagreed with any particular issue either. If you are serious about finding a church I would suggest praying about it long and hard. Ive always found that Ive learned something new from the churches Ive been to... good things and bad things, about people, human nature, as well as fellowship. hth.

[kapatasana]

Originally Posted by lilyka

honestly I have never met a non-denominatioinal church that wasn't ubber conservative. i think you would like something like methodist or presbitarian.

This has been my experience as well. Usually I've found Non-denominational churches to be conservative, evangelical and/or fundementalist. Often I've found "non-denominational" to actually mean "Anti-denominational", as if the general belief was that denominations were "bad" (though of course as ha been mentioned earlier, there are many "non-denominational" churches that actually are tied to denominations too).

Now I have heard the terns "post denominational" and "inter denominational" applied to more liberal churches though.

OP, Like others have said, you might want to check out an American Baptist church.
Some other options might be Disciples of Christ, United Methodist, or Metropolitan Community Church (MCC).

[Snugglebunnymama]

Huh.

I wonder if location has something to do with it? Around here, 97% of "non-denominational" means contemporary, progressive, changing church 'lingo' (i.e. instead of 'location' you get 'campus', instead of 'sanctuary' you get 'auditorium', instead of 'worship service' you get 'worship experience'...) I think once or twice have I seen a non denom that was uber conservative.

[aprildawn]

Originally Posted by Snugglebunnymama

Huh.

I wonder if location has something to do with it? Around here, 97% of "non-denominational" means contemporary, progressive, changing church 'lingo' (i.e. instead of 'location' you get 'campus', instead of 'sanctuary' you get 'auditorium', instead of 'worship service' you get 'worship experience'...) I think once or twice have I seen a non denom that was uber conservative.

Yeah. Same here. My dad pastors a church like that. They all are named "Blah Blah Blah Community Church" and I joke they're all part of the "Community" denomination.

[lilyka]

just becasue hey are frowning on denominations and the old lingo etc doesn't mean they areb't conservative at its core. especially pro-life.

you may want to look into an emergant church. they are pretty loose doctrinally (well mostly anti-doctrine, but anything goes and any interpretation of the truth is often accepted or at least tolerated ) but you sound like you want something more solid than that so i would recommend a liberal mainline denomination.

[indie]

Originally Posted by Snugglebunnymama

Huh.

I wonder if location has something to do with it? Around here, 97% of "non-denominational" means contemporary, progressive, changing church 'lingo' (i.e. instead of 'location' you get 'campus', instead of 'sanctuary' you get 'auditorium', instead of 'worship service' you get 'worship experience'...) I think once or twice have I seen a non denom that was uber conservative.

That's just the thing. The progressiveness is just surface level. Theologically they usually remain conservative.