CHURCH SHOPPING

I have noticed a U.S. American attitude or habit whereby when a person
or family moves into a new community or neighbourhood they often post
that they have not found a church as yet, or are looking for a church.

Church shopping is looked down on here in Australia. It is considered a sign
of not being stablished or grounded in your faith and/or denomination.
Here a Lutheran family would just go to another Lutheran church in their
new area of residency.

For myself I would only ever move to another place that would continue
to provide access to my Pentecostal church - The Revival Fellowship.
I would never go somewhere that did not have a local Revival Fellowship
assembly.
The geographic locations of my church assemblies would be the basis for any
moving away from where I currently am.

Church shopping is often seen as being indicative of people not being content
and still seeking for the truth, hence the flit from church to church.
Many converts to our Pentecostal fellowship were church shoppers.
Always moving on seeking a deeper truth that was not satisfied in their
previous churches worship.

Well most New Christians will spend some time going Church shopping..

I would say that some people who go Church shopping after being Christians for many years probably have an ecumenical mindset or their doctrine beliefs have not solidified.

Then there are church hoppers who keep looking for a church that will tell them they are okay living any way they want to live because God loves everybody so they will make it to Heaven while living in sin. You can usually tell who they are by how much they complain about churches they have been to.

Sorry but was there a question in the OP? I might have missed something...

No just another of him counting how much better he is because he doesn't do certain things.

Just because someone stays at a church doesn't mean they are better.

Nothing you have is because yourself. Any state of thinking is because it was given to you. You once we're blind. Did not see because of your own abilities

Still seeking for the truth—is that a *bad* thing? Shouldn't we continually strive for better understanding?

The way I see it, there are a handful of fundamental precepts in Christianity. And then there are a bunch of other customs and beliefs for which there's a bit more leeway—like, for example: baptism by water vs. sprinkling, age of baptism, eternal torment in hellfire vs. death, whether a sip of wine is a sin, whether a cigar is a sin, Sunday vs. Saturday worship, and the list goes on. Couldn't it be the case that a person might change their opinion on some of these "other" beliefs as they research and contemplate them?

so if i grew up in a non-denominational church...

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your recommendation would be to go to the nearest church of any denomination?

yep, perhaps when they ask they are seeking a recommendation for a church that is for Spiritual Christians and not carnal, outward form only Christians.
We were meant to be the body of believers, many stop at religion and not relationship.
No denomination died for our sins, we tend to have turned faith into something we do and not relationship.

Oh, THAT! That's easy to explain.

Say I move to a new town and I don't know anybody, so I go to upc.org and look up the local United Pentecostal Church. I go there and immediately discover they are not at all like the church where I grew up. Maybe they are a bunch of pharisees with nothing at all of God's love, or maybe they went wrong the other way and have none of the holiness a body of Christ should have. Or maybe they totally ditched the doctrine of our church and just "forgot" to tell the home office they were leaving the faith.

In any of those cases I would definitely start looking around for a different church to go to. I would probably start with Baptist, as there are many churches I know about around here that are Baptist in name but more Pentecostal in beliefs and practice.

That is great to hear that you have baptist churches closer to the real Gospel than outward form only.
I believe churches can be raised up and/or taken down depending on their faithfulness to the Word and His plan for them.
blessings

No offence Wags......but a few things to ponder....and I state this with a particular fondness for Aussies and Australia (Have been 10 times and spent a year in Au)....

a. Just because something is looked down upon in AU does not make that view correct.

b. I have been to a church in AU and it was a joke with more entertainment than preaching...now if I judged all AU churches that way would it be fair?

c. America as well as AU has every flavor of church found under the sun and some people are more interested in truth than give the dog a bone entertainment and or the rigmarole that takes place in many so called churches.

d. It is not unbiblical or wrong to seek a congregation where one gets fed and or spiritually nourished.....

thank you for the correction;
i don't know what "The Revival Fellowship" is -- so i guess that precludes you ever living in any of the areas i've ever lived.
i guess "Pentacostal" means something different in your country than it does here.

so, i grew up in a non-denominational church. i moved. what now? i can't go "find my local chapter" of such a place. there's no such thing, at least, you can't find it by looking at names in a phone directory or signs on buildings. you have to actually go hear what is being taught and see what kind of faith there is among the people. unless you know some other way?

maybe you're fortunate to be part of a "denomination" in that respect, i guess. don't have to test or examine anything, just check the name on the door. **envy**

maybe some of them. the non-denominational church i was raised in was a 50 year old building ((now 80)), the third one the church had built since it was founded, unmistakably meant to be a church, with pews, pulpits, balconies, choir loft, pipe organ chambers, baptistery, an apse and a nave, the works. there were a few hundred active members and there were tears and quaking just as much as there was joy and thanksgiving, and there were challenges and there was stumbling and there was overcoming.

not that any of that matters. there was the Spirit, and the Living God in people. a sign on a door doesn't tell me Jesus is inside: how fortunate that down under, it does!

Do you have a link to your present place of worship so we can also enjoy it?

Oh, Preacher. I am so sorry!! I cannot give that out. We have been both threatened and stalked over the @ 23 years I have attended there, and we are down the street from a militant organization. It has happened so many times, over the years, that it isn't even a subject brought up very often anymore, except in prayer.

We've been forced to move from building to building, sometimes for other reasons, but also for our safety. We can't even put our name on the building. The broadcasted services are for members only -- some of whom live out of town.

It's weird.