Gold stars for the church

[cinder]

This is the companion thread to a thread I haven't posted yet. If all goes well that thread will be an invitation to share some red flags that would motivate you to avoid a particular church. But I decided to start on the positive side of things first so: In your experiences what have particular churches you've been a part of done well or been an exceptional practice that you wish you could find in another church?

My first one is going to be that one church I went to prayed over everyone individually during our monthly time of taking communion (usually incorporated into the middle of the singing time). They eventually had to stop the practice (I think because they ended up growing so much it became time prohibitive), but I would love to be part of a church again that had communion serving teams who could take a full minute to pray over every person / family who came up to take communion (granted that for a church of 200 even with 8 teams you'd have to take half an hour or so to do communion).

That same church also did a phenomenal job of allowing me to participate fully as an adult while I was in college instead of trying to stick me in an age defined slot and that was really good and significant for me too.

Ok those are a couple of my examples. Look forward to hearing everyone else's.

 

[Magenta]

The pastor of one church I attended in my early Christian days started Imago Dei, which "is a ministry that has formed around principles of spiritual direction for the encouragement of a genuine experience of growth in the Christian spiritual life, providing resources for the cultivation of the practice of prayer and the life of faith... and a growing communion with God in their lives." We used to meet at his house every Sunday for fellowship, Christian related readings, singing praise and worship, meditation, open sharing, the Lord's Supper, and also pot luck dinner once a month. It was lovely My current church does have small weekly community group meetings where we dig in deeper to the Sunday teachings, have fellowship, sing songs of praise and worship, break bread together, and also pray with and for each other, so it is similar yet not quite the same...

 

[Lynx]

My church does a lot right. We preach the truth in love. You gotta have BOTH to be right. If you preach the truth in "I'm right and you're wrong and I'll prove it" you get the BDF, and I've seen a few churches like that. If you preach in love but water down the truth to avoid hurting anybody's feelings, you lead people the wrong way, and I've seen a lot of churches like that.

Also we like getting together. It's not a chore to have a church dinner, it's a delight. But maybe that's because we're in the South. We move slower here, take more time to hang out and enjoy each other's company. I hear it's different in some places.

 

[cinder]

My church does a lot right. We preach the truth in love. You gotta have BOTH to be right. If you preach the truth in "I'm right and you're wrong and I'll prove it" you get the BDF, and I've seen a few churches like that. If you preach in love but water down the truth to avoid hurting anybody's feelings, you lead people the wrong way, and I've seen a lot of churches like that.

Also we like getting together. It's not a chore to have a church dinner, it's a delight. But maybe that's because we're in the South. We move slower here, take more time to hang out and enjoy each other's company. I hear it's different in some places.

There was one friday night messianic congregation I visited a few times, and one of the cool things about them was they made it a habit to have a fellowship meal once a month. Regular potlucks is something any church that talks about valuing community would do well to incorporate (and I could cook all kinds of yummy fattening food without having to eat it all myself).

 

[1christian1]

My church does a lot right. We preach the truth in love. You gotta have BOTH to be right. If you preach the truth in "I'm right and you're wrong and I'll prove it" you get the BDF, and I've seen a few churches like that. If you preach in love but water down the truth to avoid hurting anybody's feelings, you lead people the wrong way, and I've seen a lot of churches like that.

Also we like getting together. It's not a chore to have a church dinner, it's a delight. But maybe that's because we're in the South. We move slower here, take more time to hang out and enjoy each other's company. I hear it's different in some places.

Good for you lynx, This reminds me of my childhood...

 

[Lanolin]

Praying for anyone during singing time..there would be two commited prayer elders who, of you needed prayer would pray with you while everyone was worshipping. You are free to go up and ask for prayer.

Sharing time. Before notices anyone can get up and share news, good (or bad) of whats been happening with God in their lives.

Library. Any church worth their salt needs a good library of Bibles and christian literature free to share and borrow.

Scones. A church that does really good scones with cream and jam for morning tea gets a gold star. Bonus, freshly baked hot cross buns at easter. (They need to be hot, not cold!)

Small groups. Life, bible study and prayer happens in small groups where you meet in each others homes.

Garden. Any church that looks after their garden (or even has a garden) is a church that loves not just people but Gods creation.

 

[Lynx]

There was one friday night messianic congregation I visited a few times, and one of the cool things about them was they made it a habit to have a fellowship meal once a month. Regular potlucks is something any church that talks about valuing community would do well to incorporate (and I could cook all kinds of yummy fattening food without having to eat it all myself).

I know, right? There are tons of things I could cook, but to practice and get the recipe right requires actually cooking it, and that generates a lot of food that must be eaten. I often have to wait two months to get a recipe perfected.

 

[Lanolin]

There was one friday night messianic congregation I visited a few times, and one of the cool things about them was they made it a habit to have a fellowship meal once a month. Regular potlucks is something any church that talks about valuing community would do well to incorporate (and I could cook all kinds of yummy fattening food without having to eat it all myself).

Did they have rules about some foods though needing to be kosher? Like no pork and shellfish. You couldnt just bring a crayfish or lobster for everyone to share.

 

[cinder]

Did they have rules about some foods though needing to be kosher? Like no pork and shellfish. You couldnt just bring a crayfish or lobster for everyone to share.

Probably, but I was never involved enough to need to worry about it.

 

[Deade]

Did they have rules about some foods though needing to be kosher? Like no pork and shellfish. You couldnt just bring a crayfish or lobster for everyone to share.

Probably, but I was never involved enough to need to worry about it.

I have fellow-shipped with SDAs and Sabbath Church of God groups that keep the clean meat ordinances as I do. You must stay within the Kosher guidelines to bring food into those groups.

Regarding the OP, I find the Pentecostal church services the most fulfilling. They are not afraid to praise God. A good praise session before a sermon is uplifting.

 

[Lanolin]

Yep in pentecostals churches you can go a bit nuts and nobody will get annoyed if you jump up and down and fling your arms about.

I sometimes wish churches would hold their services outside more. It wouldnt even matter if it rained, not if you are caught up in worship.

In orthodox churches there are no chairs or pews apparently you stand the whole time like groundlings in the shakepeare globe. I would prefer everyone just sit on the floor cos chairs and pews can be so restricting. But not everyone can bend their knees.

 

[Oncefallen]

One of the things that I love about the church that I attend is that they hold regular visitor lunches. It gives persons who may be in the process of church shopping the opportunity to talk with both the pastor and some of the elders about what we as a church stand for (and won't stand for).

 

[Krumbeard]

My personal experience with my current church is that when my wife was in the hospital one or both of the pastors was in the hospital with me the whole time Iwas there. I didn't attend that church then.
There was tension between myself and some of her family. I was waiting for one of the pastors to notice this and confront me about it. They did not. But rather comforted and took care of basic things like getting drinks or food.
They offered the church for the funeral service and were willing to do what they could to help.

It was awesome! It was a blessing! It was amazing!

After I started attending there, I was able to talk with the pastors without feeling intimidated. I was always intimidated by pastors or preachers before and would avoid them.

God works in amazing and wonderful ways!!!

 

[cinder]

Have to say two things that impressed me about the church I visited today:
1) They have a church dinner followed by small groups practically every sunday night during the school year.

2) They had a baby baptism this morning (still not entirely sure how to think about that as I grew up in churches that practiced believer's baptism only), and after the baptism the pastor took the baby up and down the aisles to "meet" the whole congregation and I thought that part was really cool and an awesome way of involving the whole church. First time I'd seen anything like that in a baby baptism / dedication.

 

[Mii]

Yep in pentecostals churches you can go a bit nuts and nobody will get annoyed if you jump up and down and fling your arms about.

I sometimes wish churches would hold their services outside more. It wouldnt even matter if it rained, not if you are caught up in worship.

In orthodox churches there are no chairs or pews apparently you stand the whole time like groundlings in the shakepeare globe. I would prefer everyone just sit on the floor cos chairs and pews can be so restricting. But not everyone can bend their knees.

I'm glad someone else feels this way. That's one of the most confusing things about church...why don't you guys want to have it outside?!?

I mean if anything having a pavillion for rain makes sense.


I had a fun time on the singles retreat I went on because we did 3 campfire services. No real teaching but lots of old school songs (most of these people were 40+ and I'm 28) but it was sweet

 

[Krumbeard]

The church I am currently a member of was a huge unexpected help in covering the cost of the funeral. They didn't even know who I was and they were willing to help.

 

[Krumbeard]

Another church I attended for a year or two had a lot of trade type members.
If they saw someone that needed a roof repaired/ replaced or some other problem that needed fixed they got together and took care of it.