Mmmm....
There is nothing "wrong" with attending different church fellowships at the same time. I use the word "fellowship", as this is to what I think we are more correctly referring. I believe that when we meet together in fellowship we worship the Lord and spur one another on in the faith. I don't go to the fellowship meeting primarily to worship God, but I do worship Him when I am there (I can, should, and do worship God wherever I am, not just at the fellowship meeting on Sunday). The primary purpose of fellowshipping together is not just to worship God but to encourage one another and build one another up in the faith.
Our God is a relational God, He relates to you and me as indivduals. I believe that He has also built into us the need to build relationships with each other. This will become difficult and harder to do if we are attending more than one fellowship. So whilst it's not necessarily wrong to attend more than one fellowship, you really should be anchored in to one fellowship, primarily. John Wimber once said that people go to church for many different reasons but there is only one reason why they stay, and that's the friends they make. At first, I disagreed with him, but I have now come to see that he is right. If you don't build relationships you are more at risk of being drawn away. People who say that they don't have to go to church to worship God are right, but they miss out on the strength that relationships can bring. Encouragement (and rebuke) comes easier from the people you know, rather than from people with whom you have just a passing acquaintence.
There is another important feature of being anchored into one fellowship. We read in the bible that rebellion is as witchcraft to God. Rebellion is anathma to Him. We are called into submission to God and, I believe, the leadership that He has placed over us (now, we can have a long and heated debate over this point, but will you be gracious enough to avoid the debate in this thread and accept the point for the moment). If you are attending different fellowships, then there are several possibilities:
1. You are not a member of any curch fellowship and do not submit to any leadership.
2. You are a member of a church fellowship and the leadership have no problem with you visiting other fellowships.
3. You are a member of a church fellowship and the leadership are not aware that you are visting other fellowships.
4. You are a member of a church fellowship and the leadership have told you not to visit other fellowships.
Option 2 is the only one which I believe finds acceptance with God.
The aspect of submitting to the leadership of the fellowship is not one of discipline or rebuke (that's what the enemy would want you to focus on, to draw you into rebellion) but it has more to do with the care and protection of the flock and more specifically - you. Or put another way, the decisions that the leadership make concerning you should always be from a point of view of love for you. If they are godly leaders, then this will always be their standpoint. So, I would argue that submitting to leadership is all about love, care, protection and freedom.
If you are going to any conference or event, you should let your leaders know and hear what they say. Even most Christian organisations ask for a testimony from the leaders of your fellowship if you wish to serve them. They see the importance of seeing that you are submitted to church leaders. I can not understand how you can be submitted to the leadership of two church fellowships at the same time.
If your leaders say "No" and you think that they are wrong, then take it to God. He will tell you one of two things, either leave and go to another fellowship, or submit. He will never tell you to disobey. The trouble is that we have a hard time with the word "submission" we find it hard to swallow, and that's the way the enemy wants it.
In the place where I live, there are seven church fellowships that are like minded and work together (Baptist, AOG, Elim Pentecostal, Free Church) and I know that people are free to visit these fellowships on an ad hoc basis, but they are still anchored in to the membership of one felowship and submit to the leadership of their fellowship. It mainly operates in circunstances where one fellowship doesn't have a Sunday evening meeting and another fellowship does or there's a visting speaker, or special event, etc.
So, there is nothing inherently worng with visiting more that one church fellowship so long as you have a home fellowship, are anchored into that fellowship and the leaders don't have any problem with you visiting other fellowships.
Many blessings...
Martin
