The title of this post is "Church Shopping" not "Church Hopping". Long ago in another career I learned that people tend to recreate similar circumstances for themselves wherever they go. For those people who are church hopping, it's best to stay at your current church and work things out. For those who find themselves in the unfortunate position of needing to find a new church, The Limitless has a good list of things for which to look.
If you aren't church hopping or church shopping you should take a look at the list anway and see if your church is staying on it's toes.
Being part of a church that does not change much from one area to another I can only try to understand his position. Church shopping must be hard to do. With all the possible doctrines and small changes in each one maybe churches should put out a score card of what they believe of each subject. Not to be sarcastic or cruel.
Being a Mormon I know that the church here in Tennessee is the same, doctrine wise, as the church meeting in Iowa for example. But knowing that between my house in Kentucky and my Grandmothers house there are 14(Maybe 15, 1 did not have a sign) Baptist churches on the route. Each with like doctrine, but with slight changes.
His post brought out the truth that for many the book should be judged by its cover, and for the churches the cover is the first few minutes in the door.
I like to think of a denomination as a sort of brand name. It used to be that you could depend on the "brand" no matter where you went. Unfortunately that isn't true anymore. "Quality Control" in the denominations just isn't what it used to be.
-JDM
As far as "quality control" is concerned I can't speak for the Catholics who have a pretty centralized system. I assume the mormons do too with all the shots being called at the main office as it were. (Not to be offensive but I consider the Mormons to be a cult.) Either way, I would imagine they're still pretty standard from one to the other.
-jdm
No offense taken. I am pretty laid back on many issues and most LDS would say I am not a good Mormon. I am a little to unconventional in nature and attitude toward life in general.
Some of the issues he brought up I also chaff(?) under. The friendly nature of a church is very important. You have to feel like it is a community of Christ, not a reading circle.
Thanks for the mention on your blog.
Yeah, I agree that denominational "quality control" isn't what it used to be. No idea what causes this. And to Gunner's point, it's not really the doctrine that changes much, within the denomination . . . it's the implementation of it. For instance, all Southern Baptist, or Assembly of God churches adhere to the same doctrinal statements as a foundation of belief for the church . . . but doctrinal statements typically leave ample room for wide differences from church to church. And thought most differences aren't that great, the "personality" of the church can make all the difference.
Casey,
I've observed the same thing you are talking about with the Evangelical Free Church of America. I grew up in the denomination and it's amazing the difference between churches although they ascribe to the same doctrinal statement.
-Jim.