Not sure what forum this goes in. Just curious, I've been attending a church for a while now and play in the worship band. But I've started to realize I have a couple of disagreements on theology with some things that are rather important to me. I found a different fellowship that more closely aligns to my theological views. My question is if it were you, would you stay in the church that you are already serving in but may not agree with on some theology, or would you go to a gathering that has similar beliefs as you?
I have prayed about this for quite some time, but I have not felt any specific leading in any way.
When I stopped attending the church I grew up in (my last year of high school), it grew out of several things:
1) My own changing views and growing disagreements.
2) Life circumstances, while my dad had moved to the other side of the state because of work with the goal of moving the rest of the family once there was enough money to get a place we could all live, my mom's cancer progressed and she ended up passing away, and my younger brother soon moved down to live with my dad I stayed to try to finish school. So suddenly, I couldn't attend church with family, and I didn't have a car and the church was located about a 20 minute drive out of town.
3) The dynamics of the church had been changing, we had gotten a new pastor several years earlier, and other positions of leadership began being taken up by new people as older members (not older as in age, but as in who had been members longer) began leaving. So the demographics of the congregation became such that I just didn't recognize most of the faces anymore on Sunday morning--many congregants had left the church to find a home elsewhere. I couldn't tell you their reasons, as I'm not sure. There may have been more things happening behind the scenes than what I was aware of, but for me I just slowly felt like, without my family, without the familiar people, and things generally feeling different--I didn't feel like it was my church anymore anyway.
I started visiting some friends churches. But I never intended to become a permanent fixture, I just wanted to go to church but didn't know where to go. This became harder as I started doing deep dives into theology and Scripture and trying to figure Christianity out. I tried to stay in my hometown a little bit after high school, but after losing my job and losing the place I was living, I ended up moving down to where my dad lived. Tried to find a church to attend there too. Visited a lot of churches.
I've often called this period my "wilderness". As I felt like I was wandering without a church home. I wanted a church, but didn't know where I should go. I was still trying to figure out what I believed.
Eventually, and I believe by the grace of God, I finally ended up home in Lutheranism. But for about 10 years I was wandering. I wasn't away from Christianity, I just didn't have a place to call home because I didn't know where to be.
While I don't recommend being without a church home, I don't regret that period of wandering. I think it was an important time in my life for me to figure things out, to go through the tough processes of deconstructing and reconstructing my own religious views. Early on things were wonky, but God kept me afloat.
This was my experience. It's not meant to be a "you should do this too", but just sharing my own story. What I want people to get from this is that we have a good and faithful God who provides for us. Even if we find ourselves in the wilderness. He will bring us home.
-CryptoLutheran