How many times have you switched denominations?

[Sabertooth]

But I did not know the Vineyard changed its thinking to being a separate denomination when he died. It's still the same church I was saved at on Sunday, March 16, 1997.

When he was alive, they were eccentric/adventurous/cutting edge; tried new things. They kept what worked and backed away from things that didn't.

Toronto Airport Vineyard was the latter, and why they backed away from taking such chances altogether. Because of TAV, Wimber (near the end of his life) recommended that Vineyard should adopt a denominational structure. As a result, AVC became "safe" at the expense of its "edginess." Its current doctrine is orthodox enough, but in my experience, it has added a degree of spiritual inertia.

 

[GodLovesCats]

The word "edgy" never came to mind for me. I just thought VCF is a contemporary church with its uses of technology, worship style, and non-traditional building (no steeple, stained glass windows, pews, or hymn books). They also use the NIV, which is modern English but not too far from word for word translations.

 

[Dave-W]

I attended a Church of the Nazarene as a child as it was what my dad allowed. He had been ordained Wesleyan Methodist but got kicked out when his first marriage failed. CoN was almost identical in doctrine. After the marriage to my mom broke up, we went to an independent Pentecostal church and when mom remarried we were in an Assembly of God. I bounced back and forth between the AoG and the independent pentecostal church with a one year stint at a Church of Christ. My best friend thru all of that was Catholic.
In college I got involved in a "Discipleship" congregation and was there for several years afterward. THen I moved back to my home town and became part of a Word of Faith congregation that my mom and step dad helped found. I was there until I got a strong lead from God to switch to Messianic Judaism. Been there for the last 20 years. (2 different denominations of that: UMJC/Tikkun and Chosen People Ministries)

 

[Yarddog]

Please vote in the above poll and feel free to elaborate.

I was raised as a Baptist but didn't like the message coming from the minister, so I asked my mother if I could quit when I was about 12. She had stopped going a few years earlier. We moves from town to town every few years so the ministers were different.

After a few years God began pulling me back to scripture and after a very traumatic event, God called me into the Catholic Church. I was baptized 37 years ago and love it all.

God bless

 

[ChicanaRose]

By any chance, does anyone here attend more than one denomination regularly?

For example, you go to your spouse's church on Sundays but attend your own on Saturday evenings?

Or you regularly attend small groups at a friend's church, but attend worship services at your own?

 

[seeking.IAM]

By any chance, does anyone here attend more than one denomination regularly?

No, not me. I thought I might drop in from time-to-time at my former church just to stay in touch. And, I thought I might more frequently follow friends who are in various churches as a Christian chorale group. But, I find I don't want to miss out on activities in my new church to do these things.

 

[PloverWing]

By any chance, does anyone here attend more than one denomination regularly?

For example, you go to your spouse's church on Sundays but attend your own on Saturday evenings?

Or you regularly attend small groups at a friend's church, but attend worship services at your own?

I don't now, but I used to.

When I was a grad student, in the process of changing from Baptist to Episcopalian, I attended the 8am service at an Episcopal church and the 11am service at a Baptist church. At the time, I thought of myself as a Baptist who regularly visited an Episcopal church. Eventually, the time came when I realized I wasn't Baptist any more, and at that point, I joined the Episcopal church.

Later, when my husband and I were newly married and had just moved to a new town, we attended two churches for a different reason: my husband is Baptist and I am Episcopalian. The church we attended for my husband's sake was a Friends Meeting (long story - he couldn't find a Baptist church he liked, so Quaker was his second choice), and the church we attended for my sake was Episcopal. As we had children and they became acolytes, we found it simpler to attend just one church, mine, so that everyone's schedules became more predictable.

 

[Paidiske]

By any chance, does anyone here attend more than one denomination regularly?

I don't now, but for a while I went to my husband's Church of Christ in the morning, and my Anglican church in the evening. That stopped when I offered for ordination, though, and had to be in my field placements in the morning.

 

[Anthony2019]

I grew up in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Whilst at university, I got to visit different churches: Methodist, Pentecostal, Salvation Army, Baptist and various Anglican churches. Some of them I attended for quite some time so got used to a wide variety of worship styles. I returned to the Anglican church because I felt I wanted to return to my 'roots'. I got confirmed this year.

 

[mama2one]

By any chance, does anyone here attend more than one denomination regularly?

we do attend different Christian churches
sometimes I like to go on Sat & if we all go on sat,
husband & child will often attend on sun also at a diff. church

we don't argue over what church to attend but husband, child, and I each have our own preference so I don't see us only going to one church at this point in time

we also started going to a new one for us this summer which child really liked from first attendance because she knows quite a few kids in the Sunday School class

 

[Bob Crowley]

I was baptised Presbyterian as an infant, and joined a Presbyterian church when I finally became Christian. Later on I was briefly a member of the Wesleyan Methodists (largely because a number of the people I used to hang about with as a Presbyterian joined that denomination following a church crisis in the original Presbyterian parish).

I've had some experience in Baptist Churches because my wife is Baptist (when we married we were both Protestant).

But I became disillusioned with the divisiveness of the Protestant Churches, and although I resisted it at first, I eventually became Catholic. I'll stay Catholic, for the simple reason that I think it is closest to the truth.

My original wise, prophetic Presbyterian pastor predicted I'd become Catholic, and after he died I had a brief vision in which he turned up and just said "The Catholic Church is closest to the truth", with a distinct emphasis on the word "closest". Then he just cleared out again.

Which indicates to me that there's a few things they haven't sorted out yet - "closest" - but they don't have "all the truth".

Anyway that's where I am.

 

[ChicanaRose]

What do you miss about the denomination you left? For me, I miss the stained glasses and the beautiful setting/ building.

 

[Francis Drake]

The notion of denominations is completely contrary to scripture. So no, I am not in any denomination, nor would I ever be.

 

[Dave-W]

The notion of denominations is completely contrary to scripture. So no, I am not in any denomination, nor would I ever be.

So how does that work? Do you not attend any congregation at all?

 

[Francis Drake]

So how does that work? Do you not attend any congregation at all?

The Lord spoke to us many times from scripture, and via the Spirit, calling my wife and I out of the institutional system about 12 years ago. We haven't been back other than an occasional visit.

We currently meet on an ad hoc fashion with similar minded believers maybe once a month for a meal, but I will never put another man over my head, otherwise it dishonours Christ.

There are many many scriptures showing the wrongness of the hierarchical church structure, but here's just one.-
1Cor3v3But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and the head of Christ is God.
4Every man praying or prophesying having anything on his head dishonors his head.

 

[Dave-W]

We currently meet on an ad hoc fashion with similar minded believers maybe once a month for a meal, but I will never put another man over my head, otherwise it dishonours Christ.

Not really. This is one of the NT commands:

Hebrews 13:17
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

 

[GodLovesCats]

I was raised as a Baptist but didn't like the message coming from the minister, so I asked my mother if I could quit when I was about 12. She had stopped going a few years earlier. We moves from town to town every few years so the ministers were different.

After a few years God began pulling me back to scripture and after a very traumatic event, God called me into the Catholic Church. I was baptized 37 years ago and love it all.

That looks backward to me. Catholicism is the least Scriptural denomination. How can you go back to the Bible and be Cahtolic?

 

[GodLovesCats]

By any chance, does anyone here attend more than one denomination regularly?

I have a friend who does this. She belongs to a Methodist church and attends services at a Jewish church. I could never see myself going to two completely different churches, but it is great that some people do.

 

[Yarddog]

That looks backward to me. Catholicism is the least Scriptural denomination. How can you go back to the Bible and be Cahtolic?

I guess you weren't paying attention.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Please vote in the above poll and feel free to elaborate.

As a very young child, my first few experiences with Church and Christianity were in an Independent Baptist church, one which for one reason or other, my parents fell out with. A little later in my childhood and into my early teenage years, my parents took us to a more liberal Presbyterian U.S.A. church.

Upon finding Christ for myself in my later teenage years, I attended a stauncher Southern Baptist church, one that I quickly realized couldn't contend with my questions or with my attraction to rock-n-roll, sci-fi, and fantasy. So, after a couple of years of attending there, I found myself alighting and aligning instead with the "Campbellite" Christian Church.

All of the above was later (in the early 2000's) displaced or replaced with a more general and philosophical attitude toward the Christian faith, one that simply embraces all of my Trinitarian brothers and sisters in all Trinitarian denominations, despite our differences. Now, I attend a church, whichever I like, whenever the mood strikes me and when my other family members seem to allow for it.

So, I'm a general Christian philosopher with no formal church home, who considers himself 'Inter-Denominational,' with the freedom to search, research, inquire, and interpret as I see fit to do in academic, hopefully more real and truthful terms. And did I say that I'm Trinitarian? Yes, I am.