I'm doing 39 things
At first, I looked for a church that made me feel comfortable. My first church growing up was a Catholic church, and the ritual of it scared me- I was scared that someone else (or God) would see me sit down when I was supposed to kneel, and find out that I really didn’t know what I was doing. In my recent searches for a church, I wanted a church that had the same conservative approach (I wasn’t ready for a rock band to be leading the hymns), but without the scariness of ritual.
I found a lot of churches that did not fit me. I stopped going to church because every one I went to would make me unhappy about one thing or another. I started to think after a while that my own nitpicking was coming in between me and growing with God. I had to reexamine some of the reasons I had rejected churches, and determine if these issues were really something that would stunt my growth, or if they were things that I should be able to get over.
I settled on a church that teaches expositorally. This suited me because I felt that I had a need to understand the Bible to a deeper degree, as there are still large portions that I haven’t read at all yet or am not very familiar with. The pastor is passionate and humorous, and never bores me.
Once you have a church that you’re considering, I think it’s important to immerse yourself in the church community, and discover if the fellowship you experience with them is helping you grow with God. I think that fellowship is the most important thing about church, and it’s important to remember that church is not a building.
