Church Hunt

Finding a "good" church is always a process.  There are lots of important things to consider... the pastor's teaching style/ability, music, size of the church, belief/biblical background the church is based on,  activities (bible studies, mom's groups, etc.) offered by the church.  There are other things that we consider as well:  is the congregation friendly (did anyone notice us and say hi?), location (how far do we have to drive), etc. 

Anyway, since first becoming a Christian and attending church (1997) I have always gone to some sort of non-denominational church.  I've liked them and overall had a great experience. 

The options for a non-denominational church here in Southern Maryland is a little limited.  There are two.  There are a couple Bible Churches as well but only two true "non-denominational" churches.  Both of them are small and don't actually have a church building. 

We tried out the one closest to us (20 minutes away) and thought it was okay but not the one.  I think picking a church this time is more important than it has ever been because we will likely live here for a long time and the church will hopefully play an influential role in our kids lives as well as our own. 

Today we tried the First Saints Community Church.  It is the church that runs "preschool #4." It sounds like a non-denominational church based on it's name but it isn't. It is a Methodist church.  This is sort of comical to me because both my parents were raised in Methodist churches (we were raised in a church at all though).  Anyway, we really liked it. 

Here are a few facts about it...

Size: 400 attendants last weekend (over 3 services)

Worship style:  2 contemporary services and 1 traditional (we went to a contemporary service and the music was really good)

Pastor:  One head pastor who was educated at the Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas; the assistant pastor was educated at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. The pastor who spoke today was a really good speaker.  He held our attention and we his sermon.

Biblical Basis:  I need to look a little closer at the methodist church's beliefs however from what I can tell it seems like the churches beliefs are similar to ours.

Kids services:  Sunday and nursery are provided.  Erik didn't want to leave.  Lainey was quite ready to go -- apparently she did fine but was crying when I picked her up because a bigger baby had just knocked her over.  The preschool is there as well (wait list at the moment).

Bible studies/Marriage classes:  They have groups/bible studies called life groups.  I am not sure what else is offered.

Other:  If we chose this to be our home church we would need to get the kids baptized.  The churches we have attended before don't baptize people until they are old enough to profess their faith.

Anyway, we will go back again next week to see if we still like it.  I'm curious as to what you think?