Church Search

For the last 12 weeks I have been doing some serious searching. I have not been very public about my journey because it was a topic I did not want to discuss with many people for fear of hurting anyone’s feelings.

I was thinking of finding a new church.

First let me state that my church is a huge part of my life and the life of my children; I do not take this decision lightly. I LOVE my pastor, who is extrodinarily gifted with reaching prodigals; he is intelligent, wise and giving. He has made a HUGE impact on my life. There are many in our congregation who I have grown close to. The action of leaving my church is a serious one for me.
I became a member of my church in the summer of 2005. It is the one and only church of which I have ever been a member. Since becoming a member I have been very active in the youth ministry and other areas of our church life.

We are a small, struggling church. Currently we are in the middle of a heated battle with our denomination. At the time when I joined the First Presbyterian Church I had no knowledge of any of the debates and battles going on within the denomination. I have to admit that joining this church was not at all about becoming Presbyterian, in fact I really did not know what the difference was. I just wanted to worship where I knew the people loved Jesus. By the help and love that this congregation had shared with me, I thought that this is where I belonged.

But I have since been made aware of disturbing problems within the Presbyterian denomination. Our congregation has voted to disaffiliate from the PC USA over the denomination’s liberal direction on Scripture and theology. Our congregation wishes to transfer our membership to the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I wish the actual transition were as easy as it was to write. PC USA owns our property so even though this congregation stretched themselves to the max to build a new addition and pay it off in less than a decade it belongs to PC USA. Taking a stand against the PC USA means we could ultimately lose our building.

For me this battle has been draining. I have tried to stay out of it, to be honest. At first because I wasn’t sure I understood it. Then, because it seemed to have nothing to do with my walk with Christ. But even now that I do understand it and agree that we must leave the denomination, I feel it is just plain distracting from what I thought the ultimate purpose of the church was. The issues have made it impossible to receive new members, drained our resources and sucked away our attention.

But this show down with PC USA is not the only reason I have considered leaving my church….

TO BE CONTINUED