{"id":9974,"date":"2011-03-07T00:30:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T05:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=9974"},"modified":"2011-03-06T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-06T22:30:00","slug":"finding-a-church-part-2-worshipping-at-local-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/07\/finding-a-church-part-2-worshipping-at-local-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a Church, Part 2: Worshipping at Local Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being a Christian in the military sometimes creates challenges in situations civilians take for granted.\u00a0 For example, how do you find a church<\/em>?\u00a0 The concept of a \u201chome church\u201d and steady lifelong attendance takes on a whole new meaning when you move every two to four years.<\/p>\n

This is the second article in a series of suggestions and guidance on finding a church as you move about in your military career.\u00a0 The first, Part 1: The Military Chapel<\/a><\/em>, discussed the various perspectives and thoughts on attending services at the base\/post military chapel.\u00a0\u00a0The topic of Part 2 is local\/community churches a military Christian might choose to visit at a new or temporary assignment.<\/p>\n

Attending a Local Church\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

If a military Christian decides not\u00a0to attend the base\/post chapel, most assignment locations have the opportunity for a variety of off-base services.\u00a0 For the most part, wherever you go you’ll be able to find a church of your\u00a0denomination.\u00a0 If you prefer non-denominational services or you cannot find a familiar service to attend, you\u00a0might end up\u00a0attending a “new” church.<\/p>\n

Ideally, the way to find out about off-base churches is through contacts who have attended there.\u00a0 Your\u00a0first choice should be to ask members of a Bible study or equivalent fellowship, if you can find one.\u00a0 Also,\u00a0most chaplains will have information on local churches’ styles and formats of worship that could help you\u00a0make an informed decision.\u00a0 A final\u00a0option is to crack open the base paper, local newspaper, or phone book and find a church.\u00a0 You\u00a0can\u00a0get information on the church by calling them and asking them about their doctrine and style of worship.<\/p>\n

The less you know about a church you\u00a0visit, the more discretion is recommended.\u00a0\u00a0The risk is not in finding a church with completely bizarre beliefs, but in finding a seemingly reasonable church with subtle but important doctrinal discrepancies.\u00a0 While every person\u2019s spiritual development is at a different place, it is helpful in those cases for you to\u00a0have a firm grasp on what you believe, and to listen with some “skepticism” at first.\u00a0 Once you determine that the doctrine of the church is in line with Biblical teaching, whether by attendance or by direct questioning of the pastor or other members of the congregation, then you can open yourself up to the teaching of the church.\u00a0 More on this in a moment.<\/p>\n

For those of you who grew up in one church or a particular denomination your entire life, the first experience of finding a new church in a new place can be daunting.\u00a0 Likewise, the churches you “survey” as\u00a0you search for a new church home face their own<\/em> daunting challenge:\u00a0 to make you\u00a0comfortable and willing to worship there, they need to be very much like the church you’re used to.\u00a0 As you attend new churches, the very characteristics that attracted you to military service, and have made you a good officer, fighter pilot\/intel\/maintenance\/etc officer, and leader may begin to surface:\u00a0You may find yourself critically analyzing the sermon, the building, and the budget; being judgmental of the doctrine, worship style, and structure; and wondering if you’ll ever find the \u201cperfect\u201d church.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to remember that unless you\u00a0happen upon the First Church of [Your Name Here], no church you attend will be “perfect.”\u00a0 (Someone once said that if you do find a perfect church, don\u2019t join it — you\u2019ll ruin it.)<\/p>\n

There will always be something \u201cwrong\u201d with a church.\u00a0 You must know what is important;\u00a0you must understand that which cannot be compromised, and that which really doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 If it is a doctrinal discrepancy or other fundamental belief that cannot be reconciled with the Bible, then that church should not be considered.\u00a0 If the beef is stylistic, geographic, demographic, or some other minor issue, a skeptical Christian military member\u00a0should approach it with an open mind and heart.\u00a0 A church with sound teaching should not be abandoned simply because they pass the plate at the end of the service instead of the middle.\u00a0 If the difficulties you\u00a0have with a church are distracting you from\u00a0your ability to learn, worship, and fellowship, then you must decide if\u00a0you can plant yourself there.\u00a0 If\u00a0you cannot get beyond those distractions, then perhaps that particular church is not for you.\u00a0 Use caution, however:\u00a0if the difficulty is truly a minor one and you\u00a0cannot let it go, your attitude<\/em> — not the church —\u00a0may be the problem:\u00a0 In that case you may\u00a0inhibit your ability to find any<\/em> church where\u00a0you will ever<\/em> be comfortable.\u00a0 Such a Christian runs the risk of church-hopping through all the local churches and never having a steady place to\u00a0call his church home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some Christians may be comfortable in any<\/em> church setting.\u00a0 For them and for relatively new Christians it’s important\u00a0not to be too<\/em> accepting of an unknown\u00a0church.\u00a0 Ideally, you should have some spiritual foundation and a familiarity with the Bible so you can test what the preacher says; in the very least,\u00a0you should have a trusted friend to talk to if\u00a0you hear an unusual teaching.\u00a0 This caution is neither closed-minded nor unfounded; it\u2019s actually a Biblically demonstrated practice.\u00a0 In Acts 17:11, Paul commended the Bereans for checking the scriptures to see if Paul<\/em>\u2019s preaching was true, rather than simply believing everything they heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a short TDY I\u00a0decided to try a generically-named church\u00a0I had passed on my way to the base.\u00a0 The first Sunday I attended I was quite impressed.\u00a0 The style was a bit conservative but was similar to what I had known growing up, and the teaching had depth and knowledge.\u00a0 I gladly attended again the second week.\u00a0 The\u00a0next week the sermon seemed to be teaching a concept with which I was vaguely familiar.\u00a0 When I approached the pastor of the church after the service, he confirmed that what he had preached could be described as a sermon on the fifth tenet of Calvinism.\u00a0 Had I not had some knowledge of Calvinism prior to that sermon, I may not have recognized it.<\/p>\n

The point here isn’t to debate Calvinism;\u00a0the\u00a0point is that when \u201cexperimenting\u201d with churches — as military Christians will do far more often than their civilian counterparts —\u00a0military Christians\u00a0will\u00a0likely\u00a0expose themselves to the gamut of doctrinal leanings.\u00a0 As you listen to sermons and studies, be prepared to\u00a0“look it up” and see what the Bible says.\u00a0 In the odd occasion you walk into a church or study that\u00a0insists on teaching\u00a0something contrary to the Bible, then\u00a0look for another church.\u00a0 Again, there is no need to run at the first sight of a challenging teaching, but you\u00a0shouldn\u2019t plan on blindly accepting\u00a0difficult concepts, either.<\/p>\n

Next time<\/strong>: “Leaving”\u00a0a\u00a0Church<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an update to a prior article on Finding a Church<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a Christian in the military sometimes creates challenges in situations civilians take for granted.\u00a0 For example, how do you find a church?\u00a0 The concept of a \u201chome church\u201d and steady lifelong attendance takes on a whole new meaning when you move every two to four years. This is the second article in a series of suggestions and guidance on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[38,2,17,10,171],"class_list":["post-9974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-chapel","tag-military","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}