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To: fwdude
Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth http://www.opcfw.com/

Mid-Cities Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Bedford http://mcopc.org/

105 posted on 02/08/2015 11:14:46 AM PST by CrosscutSaw
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To: fwdude; CrosscutSaw; lupie
- A church that meets regularly, and doesn't dismiss services for Superbowl Sunday.
There are churches that cancel church on December 25th, if it falls on a Sunday!
No Church This Sunday—It's Christmas
Why do churches close on Sunday? (MegaChruches reduce Holy Day to holiday)
This will be an issue again in 2016.

Anyway, spending most of my adult life moving every two years or so, allow me to share my method of finding a new church:

a. It is critical, IMHO, to know the confession/statement of faith/whatever you want to call it. I am a bit cautious of nondenominational churches because they are often brief statements of faith and can change on the whim of the pastor. Not saying that disqualifies a church, just something to ask about.

b. I start with truly Reformed churches. PCA, OPC, URCNA, ARP. From there I have moved outward towards other confessional churches, if there are no other options.

c. I prefer hymns, and have found there are churches that do hymns with more of a modern instrumentation. I find that acceptable because, let's face it, there were no organs during biblical times. Psalm 150 shows instruments that would blow a lot of peoples gaskets today!

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

My rule of thumb is that the music should lead God's people into praise, not be a performance opportunity for the musicians.

d. An church that has grown inwards so much that it doesn't care about you will not feed you or look outwards to others. Two examples:

1. We visited what seemed like a solid church for about 6 weeks. On day one we were talking to the "hospitality lady" whose job was to greet newcomers. As we were chatting she saw someone walk by, excused herself quickly and promptly started a conversation with another lady about a sale going on at a local store. OK, that is awkward, but we though that maybe she should not have volunteered to greet people. Five weeks later we were seriously thinking about joining when after church I dawned on me that Pastor didn't know our name. It was a smallish church and not once did he call us by name, or even seem to make an effort, such as "hey, I have a terrible memory, tell me your name again. Then my wife realized that not once did anyone in the church call us by name. Not a soul. We never went back.

2. A couple weeks later we visited a little country church. They were a newer congregation that had just finished building a new church. As we were chatting about how beautiful it was an elder looked me right in the eye and said "we built it just for you." We were warmly welcomed and rapidly assimilated into the daily life of the church.

Anyway, I know the Reformed corner of Christianity isn't for everyone, but I do know there are solid churches of all types out there. I hope you find one that will feed your soul, and where you can help to feed others.
152 posted on 02/08/2015 4:37:00 PM PST by Gamecock (Joel Osteen is a minister of the Gospel like Captain Crunch is a Naval line officer.)
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