Unfortunately, we have yet to settle into a church to call our spiritual home. The wife told me about how she befriended a Mormon at her new job and how its been interesting learning about their religion. When the wife told her husband that we were still looking for church, he responded “shopping for a church?” I guess Mormonism has this concept of wards, probably similar to parishes in Catholicism, where people are expected to attend the one whose jurisdiction they reside in. As I’ve written before, I think this is an idea that has a lot of merit, but in the end, I think any institution or organization that shelters itself from competition is doomed to inefficient operation, stagnation and eventual death.
This led me to think whether it’s in a local church’s best interest to seek out the best “talent” as other competitive organizations do. I think you actually do see this in the paid staff of a church. Pastors who work at large churches actually make a pretty darned good salary. For those of you who think that all pastors live a life of complete sacrifice and forgoing material desires, I think you’d be surprised at how much money some pastors make. Why do some of these pastors make a good salary? Because that’s what’s required for Megachurch X to hire superstar Pastor A. But would you see this sort of talent-seeking behavior in the pursuit of lay people?
Anyway, you might want to know what I am looking for in a church? Is this really too much to ask for?
1) Having respect for tradition but not being hindered or limited by it (e.g. to be *free* to use liturgy or hymns and have people appreciate that, but not to legalistically say we *must* have 3 hymns and we *must* have responsive reading).
2) Preaching that goes beyond a grade school level understanding of Christianity. (e.g. Something that goes deeper than “The Bible says don’t do X, so don’t do X.”)
3) Spirit-filled, free-flowing worship.
4) Congregation of people who have a visible love for each other.
5) People who love art, food, music, film.
6) A church that values knowing and doing the will of God equally. (aka not overemphasizing the “knowing” part)
Anyway, I should go work out, then go home.
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