After attending Sovereign Grace for a month and doing some study in exactly what they believe and listening to my Dad's counsel, I've decided that Sovereign Grace is not exactly where I am theologically. I love the people at this church, and they really have a heart for God and a love for each other. Their passion for the Gospel and God's Word is infectious, and God is definitely working in their midst.
That being said, they are more charismatic than I am comfortable with. Although they are not openly charismatic in their services, they do lean that direction, and the Sovereign Grace Ministries leadership in Maryland is actively pursuing charismaticism and charismatics. Also, their policy on missions is to invest only in national-led church planting works and does not include traditional missions and mission boards (which is what I'm planning to do with my life!). Finally, because of my background, I hesitate to get involved with a ministry that is so heavily led by and dependent on one person. Not that I think CJ Mahaney (the founder of the family of churches) is wrong or has problems, but because of what I've been involved in before, I just feel leery of a national movement that has the focus on one person.
So, all this to say that I'm going to be looking again for a church. Dad gave me some suggestions of churches he knew in the area that are reformed and contemporary. There should be a church here I can go to! I checked the phone book the other day and there are 309 churches listed under "Baptist"! That's a lot to choose from! (For those of you from Cleveland, there are only eight Catholic churches listed. Can you imagine that? Only eight Catholic churches and 309 Baptist? In Cleveland those numbers would be reversed!)
Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to search.
1 comment:
Be praying that you find a church that God wants you to serve Him at. 309?? There def. should be SOMETHING. :-)
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