The Local Church

Part of our travel experience has included visiting local churches. Dale and I both enjoy being in fellowship with other Christ followers, even if only for a short time.

I do my research before we arrive just like I do for our other activities. This involves an internet search of nearby churches and a review of their statement of beliefs. I discern fairly quickly whether they are standing on the truth of scripture or bowing to the expectations of our culture. Sadly, the majority of churches, in my opinion, tend to fall in the latter category. It is common for us to see rainbow banners and racial posters plastered to the front of churches. Sexual and political statements take the focus of Jesus and divides people. It has the opposite affect of what the Lord said would happen if we focus on Him and give him center attention, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32

Another thing we noticed is how many Unitarian Universalist churches there are in the North East, especially Massachusetts. They are usually very stately, historic-looking churches. Initially I thought it would be interesting to attend such an old church until I read what they stand for… which is basically nothing. They encourage you to do what you want, how you want, when you want. They embrace every form of religion and atheism. Amazingly, they have Puritan roots, according to Wikipedia. It seems to me that they are not thriving like you’d expect. I surmise it’s their own self-centered doctrine that is to blame.

Overall, every church we attended seemed full of committed, caring believers. It was very encouraging. Somehow I ended up writing Google reviews for most of the churches we attended. I wanted people like us who are searching for godly churches to find one. The review for the church in Woodbridge has already had thousands of viewers! Here is a quick rundown of the churches we attended from July to October.

Churches we Visited

North Carolina: While visiting Asheville in July we visited two churches The first one was the Basilica of Saint Lawrence. I must admit we wanted the experience of attending one of the oldest basilicas in the U.S. You can read more about that from my blog post. The other one was West Asheville Baptist. You can read more about this church in this blog post.  We continued to go there until we left town.

Virginia: While in Woodbridge during the month of August we visited First Baptist Church of Woodbridge. We really enjoyed this church. It reminded me a lot of Round Rock FBC.

Massachusetts: In September, while in Arlington, we visited Covenant Church and also First Baptist Church in Lexington.

Maine: While in Saco we visited Cornerstone Baptist Church every Sunday. It’s a fairly small congregation that reminds me of the church I grew up in — hymn books, piano, music director, etc. Very quickly we felt a part of the group. If you didn’t know better you’d thought we’d been going there for years!

We will soon be headed back to Central Texas. We look forward to being back at Central but we enjoyed worshiping with these folks. If we go on our West Coast tour, I’m not sure what to expect when I begin searching for churches. I hope I will find many.