What do you love about your church?
February 9th, 2009
For those of us that attend church, what are some things that you really dig about yours? It’s easy to talk about about what we don’t like, but what do we enjoy? What keeps us coming back each week?
Keep in mind that the “C”hurch is different from the “c”hurch. The “C”hurch is the body of Christ (if you attend or not)… the “c”hurch being the actual services we attend on Sunday.
You all always have great insight and gut-level honesty… so this is why I ask… this is YOUR TIME TO BRAG ON YOUR LOCAL CHURCH.
Go!
Chad Jarnagin. Songwriter. Worship Leader. Artist. Pastor. Creative Ideologist. Vocal Coach. Experience Architect. I grew up around Cincinnati, OH and have lived in the Nashville area for over 10 years. I’m the Worship Arts Pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church… 
“Church” is wonderful when it’s not the feeling of attending something that is its own culture. It’s a place with many cultures. It doesn’t feel like a “gathering” but a FAMILY.
I love my church so much that i’ve posted this twice!
I love that we are “on point”. We sense God’s leading and don’t allow distractions to cause us to deviate from the course. I love that we are on mission – constantly! i love that i can walk down the passageway into the theater, hear the music and feel the weight of all the “stuff” wash away.
Well, you asked!
thanks for both of your input. funny thing… i did another post like this a while back on “what don’t you like” basically and over 20 people commented.
seems like most of us like to criticize, but few want to some props and love. hmmm…
I love the church (at large and locally). Ironically the local church can be both a source of pleasure and pain. There are no perfect churches because there are no perfect people. When the church is operatiing at it’s best it offers hope to the world. Obviously when it is not it can send a lot of mixed signals. You can’t read the NT and not understand that the church is God’s idea, bride, and body. Your observation about critics is interesting. It is always easier to criticize the church rather than do the hard work of building up the body.
I like the fact that when I go to church I see a lot of people at different places in their journey. I like the fact that we can come together and celebrate what God is doing all around us. I like having a pastor that makes the message relevant to life. I like having people that are passionate serving within the body wanting to share that passion with others around them.
I love my church because it’s uncomfortable. The pastors are always pushing for our growth and for us to dig deeper into the things of God. Their goal is change – but not the kind that goes in the bucket.
I also love my church because it’s very involved. There are about 2,000 who attend on any given Sunday and at last years volunteer banquet (for those who serve regularly in some capacity) there were over 700 people there.
The pastors are great at communicating the vision and every really runs with it.
My husband works from home and we could technically live anywhere in the world. We picked Waco, Texas. That’s how much we love our church and what God’s doing in and through it.
great thoughts. thank you all for leaning in.
maybe some of these thoughts will help us all see a bigger picture and potential for our local churches instead of just parking on the negatives.
for those that sent the emails on the topic, thank you for your heart and time.
keep it coming yall.
One more thing – my pastor likes to say, “If there’s something you don’t like about what we’re doing, consider it your invitation to jump in and help us fix it.
Hmm…maybe that’s why we have so many volunteers.
I like the fact that my church is small and not set in its ways. The leadership is willing to try new things to help our community and they totally understand that the measure of success is not high attendance. The smaller size forces me to have real human interaction and go past the surface conversations that were more common when I attended bigger churches. I also feel like the church really does need me to be more than a seat-dweller. If most people who attend aren’t involved in some way other than attending then things actually don’t get done.
Plus, it’s rough around the edges. We still have technical glitches and other things that remind me that worship services are not about putting on a great show but rather about being real people coming together trying to worship an amazing God.
I am actually more involved in my small group than Sunday morning services because I am gone most weekends. Too bad because we just started meeting at a restaurant for Sunday services and I think it’s a pretty cool vibe.
Just my quick 2 cents.
I love the way the worship at my church goes. Bringing in someone different every week (particularly liked two weeks ago) and that the senior adults in our church are cool with it. For those not in Mississippi, that’s a pretty big deal. Plus I like the way our church challenges us in tons of different ways. I just really love my church!
I love my NY church for tons of reasons (pastors are real/vulnerable, head pastor has a dramatic teaching style, 4 or 5 of the pastors trade off preaching so you don’t get bored with one style, they know their ancient history and explain hard topics in relevant terms, … I could go on), but the thing I love most is called “Victory Circle” (Victory Hwy Wesleyan) At least once a month between the song time and preaching we have an open time of prayer. In a church of 1800 or so, we are encouraged to come forward if we need prayer (or have big praise) and others in the congregation come up and lay hands on those in need. It is POWERFUL, beautiful, and it knits the body of Christ together in a huge way! No one is alone, the support you feel when you have a burden is unbelievable, and everyone learns we are not alone in our struggles in life. It is a powerful experience for both the person needing prayer, and those laying hands and doing the praying. Easily the most powerful 5 minutes or so of any service! Doesn’t take long, but has dramatic impact!