Hint: It doesn’t exist.
I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you won’t be finding an ideal church anytime soon. One may have a great preacher on stage, but their missions work leaves a lot to be desired. One church’s
worship music is done with excellence and passion, but it has no singles ministry to speak of. One is involved in soup kitchens and crisis centers in the community, but the people in it haven’t been taught to grow by reading their Bibles.
The good news: The perfect church for you may be right around the corner.
I recently had dinner with a good friend who applied the same rationale to church-finding as I applied to husband-finding. There are some things that are non-negotiable, and they are different for everyone. For you, they might include weekly communion, or belief in certain aspects of theology that you ascribe to, or a spectacular music program. Anything that isn’t non-negotiable is, by definition, negotiable. If you have a problem with something in a church that’s negotiable, maybe you just need to get over it and commit to strengthening the church in whatever way you can.
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November 19, 2008 at 10:16 am
itsmandyc
You know… it kind of does exist: http://www.theperfectchurch.org/ 🙂
AND it is right around the corner.
November 19, 2008 at 10:47 am
richardchancy
We are closer to the perfect church when it resides within instead of us residing within it young (and very wise) grasshopper.
November 19, 2008 at 10:56 am
bethwnelson
Too bad The Perfect Church couldn’t have the perfect website.
What RC said reminded me of my eccentric but lovable campus minister at Tech, who said, “You are the church” to me once a week every week of my senior year. No explanation – I had to figure that out myself. Still working on it.