But perhaps the point was that the OP asked for help in finding a church according to the guidelines the author of the OP gave us. It was not an invitation for us to evaluate other factors for her such as which churches any of us think adhere most closely to Bible truth.
The point was that we were looking for a church that fulfilled three basic requirements for us.
1) Doctrine. Laura and I had already sat down together and looked at the doctrine of the two churches that we had come from (a non denom for Laura and the Salvation Army for me). We had agreement in almost all areas, with the exception of the sacrements, which the Army does not practice. Even there though that was not an issue as I am in no way opposed to them, and take great blessing and comfort from communion when I am able to partake. It is, however, very important to Laura so it was essential that we find a church where the sacrements were a central part of doictrine and worship.
However, therin lay another issue withjin an issue. I have not been Baptised and do not feel that my salvation is impinged by that (down boys...that was not an invitation to debate
). I would, however' like to be able to partake of communion, so we needed a church where all are welcome, without exception, at communion.
The Baptist church we have started attending does not make Baptism a prerequisite to Communion, although obviously they would class it as preferable. To be honest, although I do not see it as a requirement of salvation, I am starting to feel that perhaps I would like to be Baptised, but thats a seperate issue to all of this.
So, we already knew that our doctrinal beliefs were the same, which meant that were not faced with trying to find a church that was a doctrinal compromise, and we were quickly able to assertain that the doctrines of Grimsby baptist church mirrored our own. That fulfilled the first, and by far the most important, requirement for us.
2) The second requirement we had was around worship style. That was an area where our previous churches did differ very greatly. Laura's former church was very modern and had a very relaxed style of worship, whereas I was from a much more structured background with the Army.
Grimsby Baptist church seems to meet both of ur needs in this area, in that it has a good mix of the contempory and traditional worship. We had already attended a church that was almost identical in style to the one Laura had been at, and I felt completely lost. Likewise for her when we went to the Army. On Sunday though, we both felt relaxed and comfortable with the style of worship, as well as with the church itself.
3) Finally, we needed a church that had a good youth section for our 13 yr old daughter. Us walking into GBP on Sunday morning did not bring the average age on the congregation down by 20 years
.
Plenty of families and younger people there, and a good range of youth activities.
So, although it's hard to make and objective assessment from one visit, it does seem, at themoment, as though the Lord has led us to where we belong.
