Is it 'easy' to be Christian but hard to fit in a denomination

Greetings to all. New user. First post.

My wife and I have been desperately seeking a local Christian fellowship. We live in a rural part of Ohio where "churches" abound but have been out of fellowship for a number of years.

From time to time we visit a new church that appears, on paper, to share our doctrinal/theological beliefs. The problem we're experiencing is that most don't seem to be "practicing what they preach." However, the bigger issue for us is they appear, for lack of a better word, dead. The preaching is uninspired, the "fellowship" comes across as cold, forced and obligatory, and the "worship" is lifeless. Everybody seems to be just going through the motions.

It saddens me how people will jump up and down and cheer for a celebrity or their favorite sports team, but when it comes to worshiping the King of Kings...blah. We visited a non-instrumental Church of Christ last week where they were actually singing some contemporary Christian songs...all at about 1/4th the usual tempo and no expression whatsoever any anybody's face. Very disheartening. It felt more like a funeral than a celebration.

Perhaps that's that the "church" has become these days. If so, I suppose we'll just regrettably have to continue sitting this one out.

Is anybody here having difficulty finding an enthusiastic assembly with which to fellowship?

Hi. Are you evaluating these churches from the viewpoint of a charismatic or Pentecostal or similar background?

The hymns used in a Church of Christ are certainly not at 1/4 normal time and most churches do not specialize in jumping up and down as a feature of their worship. But that doesn't mean that they are "dead."

However, if what I am thinking of is the only kind of congregation in which you'd feel at home, you may be stuck, living as you said, in a rural area.

Hi, Albion. And thank you for the response.

I'm in my late 50's and have attended all manner of churches over the decades. I grew up in the Church of Christ, but I've attended everything from Amish/Mennonite gatherings to Pentecostal assemblies, and it's fairly easy to "sense" genuine worship across the spectrum (even in foreign assemblies where I didn't know the language of the church). It's not dancing (or lack thereof), it's not instrumentation (or lack thereof), it's just a palpable, genuine, outpouring of adoration that's strikingly unmistakable in all its forms. I'm fairly certain that what we experienced last week would not pass as worship to any believer I've ever met. And this church was hardly the exception in our more recent travels.

I'm willing to concede that as time passes, peoples' enthusiasm for spiritual things is waning, but I'm disheartened that it has deteriorated to the point that it has at the rate that it has. I would love to surround myself with passionate believers who love the Lord; but alas, it appears that it isn't meant to be.

Again, thanks for the reply.

Jesusthekingofking said:

the split of the church caused denomination to be existed. Every group has their own diff believe. Some even so 'crazy' protest and died for small matters. It's hard to be Christian, just confess Jesus Christ is the saviour then you'll be saved. But then when you walk your journey of faith you'll face many challenges when you found out many different denomination and groups believe and uphold slightly difference teaching, interpretation of scriptures, difference in opinion, theology etc..

unless I spend my whole life study history, read dozens of book, and think about these differences I'm confused in a sense I lack of knowledge to know the truth. Does it affect my Christian living? yeah kind of, hoping church to church, finding out different tradition and read different author from different camp.

Anyone has had this struggle before?

Click to expand...

You can be nondenominational, but you do need a support group.

Discombobulated said:

Hi, Albion. And thank you for the response.

I'm in my late 50's and have attended all manner of churches over the decades. I grew up in the Church of Christ, but I've attended everything from Amish/Mennonite gatherings to Pentecostal assemblies, and it's fairly easy to "sense" genuine worship across the spectrum (even in foreign assemblies where I didn't know the language of the church). It's not dancing (or lack thereof), it's not instrumentation (or lack thereof), it's just a palpable, genuine, outpouring of adoration that's strikingly unmistakable in all its forms. I'm fairly certain that what we experienced last week would not pass as worship to any believer I've ever met. And this church was hardly the exception in our more recent travels.

I'm willing to concede that as time passes, peoples' enthusiasm for spiritual things is waning, but I'm disheartened that it has deteriorated to the point that it has at the rate that it has. I would love to surround myself with passionate believers who love the Lord; but alas, it appears that it isn't meant to be.

Again, thanks for the reply.

Click to expand...

Hi. Now that I have your response, I see that my guesswork was wrong, and I can appreciate better what you thinking is.

I still don't think it applies to American Christianity across the board, but saying this doesn't help much if the choices in your own area aren't very good, that's right.

Jesusthekingofking said:

this season? you switch church from time to time?

Click to expand...

I was in the military. We were moved frequently.

In one case, however, the congregation we were in made a request that some of us move to a rural sister church they were trying to keep alive. After prayer, the Holy Spirit led us to make the requested move to that congregation.

We would never have found ourselves there otherwise. It was a small congregation of about 30 white retired farmers and their wives in rural Maryland. We were not only the only black family, but were were the only members besides the young pastor not on Social Security.

On our own, we wouldn't have looked twice at that congregation. We wouldn't have walked through the door. If somehow we'd accidentally entered, we'd have made a u-turn right back out again.

It was one of those, "Whachu talkin' 'bout, Jesus?" moments. "Seriously?"

But...the years we spent there were amazing. Some of my most significant encounters with the Holy Spirit sprung from there. The foundations of bulwarks that strengthen me to this day were laid there.

And when I got another military assignment, that was the only congregation that ever gave us a loving sendaway.

Aside from theology, I think people choose a particular church denomination because they regard them as their family. They grew up with them, they were taught and nurtured by them. Many people identify with a particular church because they been given support by them during important milestones in their life such as baptism, confirmation, getting married, or even through funerals and support with bereavement. Some schools, such as mine, were church-aided schools so there were a lot of connections with the church. It had an impact on the songs I learned and the traditions I had become used to.

I believe in the seven churches as seven general congregations...

Ephesus - Messianic - Beginning with the Apostle to the Circumcision, Peter
Smyrna - Martyr - Beginning with the Apostle to the Un-Circumcision, Paul
Pergamos - Orthodoxy formed in this time... Pergos is a tower... Needed in the dark ages
Thyatira - Catholicism formed in this time - The spirit of Jezebel is to control and to dominate.
Sardis - Protestantism formed in this time- A sardius is a gem - elegant yet hard and rigid
Philadelphia - Wesleyism formed in this time - To be sanctioned is to acquire it with love.
Laodicea - Charismatic movement formed in this time - Beginning with DL Moody, the first to make money off of ministry

I miss the old Philadelphian methods of revival, which can be described by George Clark Rankin...

The famous Cripple Creek Campground was on that work. They have kept up campmeetings there for more than a hundred years. It is still the great rallying point for the Methodists of all that section. I have never heard such singing and preaching and shouting anywhere else in my life. I met the Rev. John Boring there and heard him preach. He was a well-known preacher in the conference; original, peculiar, strikingly odd, but a great revival preacher.

One morning in the beginning of the service he was to preach and he called the people to prayer. He prayed loud and long and told the Lord just what sort of a meeting we were expecting and really exhorted the people as to their conduct on the grounds. Among other things, he said we wanted no horse- trading and then related that just before kneeling he had seen a man just outside the encampment looking into the mouth of a horse and he made such a peculiar sound as he described the incident that I lifted up my head to look at him, and he was holding his mouth open with his hands just as the man had done in looking into the horse's mouth! But he was a man of power and wrought well for the Church and for humanity.

The rarest character I ever met in my life I met at that campmeeting in the person of Rev. Robert Sheffy, known as "Bob" Sheffy. He was recognized all over Southwest Virginia as the most eccentric preacher of that country. He was a local preacher; crude, illiterate, queer and the oddest specimen known among preachers. But he was saintly in his life, devout in his experience and a man of unbounded faith. He wandered hither and thither over that section attending meetings, holding revivals and living among the people. He was great in prayer, and Cripple Creek campground was not complete without "Bob" Sheffy. They wanted him there to pray and work in the altar.

He was wonderful with penitents. And he was great in following up the sermon with his exhortations and appeals. He would sometimes spend nearly the whole night in the straw with mourners; and now and then if the meeting lagged he would go out on the mountain and spend the entire night in prayer, and the next morning he would come rushing into the service with his face all aglow shouting at the top of his voice. And then the meeting always broke loose with a floodtide.

He could say the oddest things, hold the most unique interviews with God, break forth in the most unexpected spasms of praise, use the homeliest illustrations, do the funniest things and go through with the most grotesque performances of any man born of woman.It was just "Bob" Sheffy, and nobody thought anything of what he did and said, except to let him have his own way and do exactly as he pleased. In anybody else it would not have been tolerated for a moment. In fact, he acted more like a crazy man than otherwise, but he was wonderful in a meeting. He would stir the people, crowd the mourner's bench with crying penitents and have genuine conversions by the score. I doubt if any man in all that conference has as many souls to his credit in the Lamb's Book of Life as old "Bob" Sheffy.

More here... Remembering my old pastor

Jesusthekingofking said:

where did you find the resource for history reading? I find it hard to learn about history of the church, very limited books about it.

Click to expand...

Just to put it out there... esword is pretty good. It is a free biblical study tool.


e-Sword: Free Bible Study for the PC | Downloads

They have quite a bit of resources under 'reference' you can download for free and read on your computer.

Jesusthekingofking said:

the split of the church caused denomination to be existed. Every group has their own diff believe. Some even so 'crazy' protest and died for small matters. It's hard to be Christian, just confess Jesus Christ is the saviour then you'll be saved. But then when you walk your journey of faith you'll face many challenges when you found out many different denomination and groups believe and uphold slightly difference teaching, interpretation of scriptures, difference in opinion, theology etc..

unless I spend my whole life study history, read dozens of book, and think about these differences I'm confused in a sense I lack of knowledge to know the truth. Does it affect my Christian living? yeah kind of, hoping church to church, finding out different tradition and read different author from different camp.

Anyone has had this struggle before?

Click to expand...

A denomination is determined by the different sets of laws its congregants are subject to. Christians are not under any law. Therefore, that is why it is hard to be in a denomination. The righteous shall live by faith, not obedience, and repentance.

Jesusthekingofking said:

the split of the church caused denomination to be existed. Every group has their own diff believe. Some even so 'crazy' protest and died for small matters. It's hard to be Christian, just confess Jesus Christ is the saviour then you'll be saved. But then when you walk your journey of faith you'll face many challenges when you found out many different denomination and groups believe and uphold slightly difference teaching, interpretation of scriptures, difference in opinion, theology etc..

unless I spend my whole life study history, read dozens of book, and think about these differences I'm confused in a sense I lack of knowledge to know the truth. Does it affect my Christian living? yeah kind of, hoping church to church, finding out different tradition and read different author from different camp.

Anyone has had this struggle before?

Click to expand...

No doubt there is a wide range of thought on many topics..but it does not mean all of them are wrong. You have to test the doctrine by the Bible..

honey badger said:

i have never attended any church, nor do i hold to any doctrine or theology that has come out from them,

Click to expand...

Then you’ve obviously never prayed and asked Jesus to save your soul and forgive your sins and make you a new creation.

honey badger said:

why a son of our Father of course ! who else could i be !

Click to expand...

Do you realize that only those who receive Jesus, become sons of God?

Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

RDKirk said:

Ahh. The Non-denominational denomination.

I'm a member of that denomination, too.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by denomination? There is one criteria for people to join our fellowship and it does not depend on doctrinal beliefs. If the individual is born again, they are welcome. A denomination, according to the dictionary, is where a group has slightly different views on Christianity compared with other groups. We differ in that we do not care about the differences. Many Christians are just as indifferent but the organisations they attend are not. That's why there is a Baptist Seminary, Lutheran, Methodist and countless others that train and ordain their ministers. We have no such theological distinctions.

chad kincham said:

Then you’ve obviously never prayed and asked Jesus to save your soul and forgive your sins and make you a new creation.

Click to expand...

you assume much ...

chad kincham said:

Do you realize that only those who receive Jesus, become sons of God?

Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Click to expand...

i am

Jesusthekingofking said:

the split of the church caused denomination to be existed. Every group has their own diff believe. Some even so 'crazy' protest and died for small matters. It's hard to be Christian, just confess Jesus Christ is the saviour then you'll be saved. But then when you walk your journey of faith you'll face many challenges when you found out many different denomination and groups believe and uphold slightly difference teaching, interpretation of scriptures, difference in opinion, theology etc..

unless I spend my whole life study history, read dozens of book, and think about these differences I'm confused in a sense I lack of knowledge to know the truth. Does it affect my Christian living? yeah kind of, hoping church to church, finding out different tradition and read different author from different camp.

Anyone has had this struggle before?

Click to expand...

Have you set your sight on God’s ways ?
This is what we have heard:
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. -Psalms 103:8

You will know those who hold to God’s ways and are fruitful in Christ Jesus.

Why you have kept wandering in this struggle? It is because you have not heeded this counsel :

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. -Colossians 3:2