musings

Church Hopping No More.

After four looooonnnnnnggggg weeeks of Church hopping, I have finally decided on a Church. I started with seven potential Churches, but was able to narrow them down rather quickly. I actually think it was toooo quick, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to pick their Church as fast as I did.

In this post, I will share couple reasons why I chose the Church I did as well as other things I’ve learned/noticed on my Church hopping trip.

The seven Churches that I considered were all solid Churches and I would recommend them to any and everyone. As for me, I decided to attend and be active in Grace Bible Fellowship in Mountain View. Below are some of the reasons why I decided on this particular Church.

1) The preaching/teaching from the pulpit is Gospel-centered, expositional, and faithful to the Word of God. I can’t emphasize enough how important preaching is in the vitality of a Church. What we believe dictates how we live. What we believe is entirely dependent on what we are taught. Therefore, the way in which the Church functions and lives is directly correlated with what is preached.

2) This Church is multi-ethnic. There’s nothing wrong with a single or mostly single-ethnic Church, but there is a tremendous value to a multi-ethnic Church. There is much to learn from other cultures and it is extremely beautiful to see the Gospel transcend skin color. Also, Silicon Valley is extremely multi-ethnic, and the Church ought to be also.

3) This Church is multi-generational. Like the previous point, there is nothing wrong with a single or mostly single-generational Church, but a multi-generational Church provides a unique dynamic that allows for youth, energy, and passion to be in perfect harmony with wisdom, experience and guidance. This kind of unity can only be had with the presence of both young and old believers in the same body.

4) This Church is a local Church for me. (only 15 minutes away) The keyword to take notice of is “LOCAL!” If possible, you should NOT be driving 45-60 minutes to attend Church! I know I just made a pretty strong statement, and I don’t mean to offend or call out anyone. Just my honest opinion on what I see in Scripture.

5) This Church has a well defined philosophy of ministry. Since I will only be in the Bay Area for a rather short period of time, a well defined philosophy of ministry helps me get plugged in quickly and effectively.

Now, moving onto other things that I’ve learned/noticed.

1) Church hopping sucks! I think it is absolutely necessary, but the past four weeks have been pretty tough. The hardest thing was the lack of a Christ-centered community. To be honest, it’s actually pretty fun attending different Churches from week to week or multiple in one day, because you get to see and experience different ways of corporate worship. BUT, it still falls short in supplementing and complementing my spiritual growth. Without anyone: to love and be loved by; to confess my sins to; to encourage and be encouraged by; to challenge and to be challenged by; to worship and pray together with; to study the Word of God with; without anyone to fellowship with I am stunted in my growth. God designed for us to be in community. To be without, frankly, is hard. I am excited to be a part of a community and to live together for the glory of God!

2) Surprisingly enough, you can actually learn a lot from a Church’s website. If you are just skimming through the Church website, there are couple things worth looking at. Different Churches use different wording, but in general I’ve noticed that the Churches understanding of the Gospel, their “core values,” and ministry distinctives are worth looking at. You would think that it would be important to read the “statements of faith,” but I found that most of these are extremely similar and rightfully so. For a Church to have a differing view on the Trinity or Jesus, would not be considered a Church at all. Eschatology will also differ from Church to Church, but I doubt anyone would choose a specific Church because of their doctrine of eschatology. If anyone does, he or she clearly has not read the book of Revelations. haha.

3) I probably have more, but I’m too lazy to write them down or to think about them. Talk to me in person aiite!