Here I am on Sunday morning. I have just been looking through some of the live streams from various Churches. You know, Life, Church Unlimited, Wesleyan Church, The Elim, and a few others. I found that most of the services were led by women.
One of the leaders advised the parishioners that if they didn’t love their church, they should give themselves a slap on their heads. Then, she proceeded to attribute the success of the church to the pastoral team. God didn’t get a mention.
The one male leader began to wax lyrical about sound corporate practice and its application in the Christian walk and to the Church. Despite being woman heavy in the worship team, the other two more community-based congregations were simply there to glorify God and teach from the word. Altogether, a bit of a mixed bag.
I was thinking of tuning into online services rather than getting involved in another church community. I already have one of those at my son’s church. I made the mistake of joining a congregation that holds a range of doctrines dear that I don’t subscribe to.
One of the problems with joining a church is that churches tend to be about dominance behaviors and hierarchy. Part of this is fashioning doctrine into a whip to keep those in the congregation that question church dogma under control. They can use this type of dominance to make people submit and stay when they should actually leave.
Cruising into any church just to check it out is not for the faint hearted. It can be a little like a fly stepping onto fly paper. You might not be able to leave as easily as you entered. Hence, watching the Sunday services on television or online is not a bad solution if you want to avoid becoming involved in the power plays or the competitive nature of attracting and retaining congregants.
A family friend once shared that he went where he liked on Sunday and tended to stay until the congregation concerned began to insist that he join them. Overall, he went to a variety of churches and found that worked for him. A little mercenary perhaps but certainly not without merit.
I suppose that it comes down to finding a group of people you mesh with and finding a way to mitigate the doctrinal anomalies. In other words, how much does the difference in belief matter. Can you ignore the negatives and accentuate the positives. Food for thought perhaps.
