What has been your past experience in local church attendance? Explain the positive and the negative.

[Austin]

The Church is a great place to fellowship, ministry to others, serving, and it helps us become closer to God. I’ve noticed that the Church in a whole has certain people that generate most of the serving, while others assume that they don’t need to serve others.

[Austin]

I have loved being in my church, they had needs of worship leading and spanish interpretation- two of my gifts. But I struggled to be known, they mainly just spoke with me one day a week, it is important to develop relationships outside of just the sunday meetings!

[Austin]

It would take an essay to tell that story. My experience in basic terms;

• As a child, the local church had a sense of indifference.
  • + I only had to think about it on Sundays
  • +I knew God was ‘the Almighty who controlled everything’
  • -It was an obligation
  • -No spiritual growth
• When I was older, the church was full of sin, and ran unchecked. I brought it to the attention to the minister and was bullied by him and pushed out.
  • +God revealed the true colours of the leadership
  • +God removed me from a bad situation
  • -It crushed my belief in any organised church
  • -I had a lot of negative emotions toward the people involved
• Another church I was asked to leave because I questioned their doctrine, just wanting clarity.
  • +I learnt a lot about how get in depth understanding of Scripture
  • +God once again revealed the true colours of leadership
  • -I was left once again without a church (I was ‘scorned’)
• Multiple other churches I attended briefly, trying to find a fit, but their doctrine obviously not Bible based or the people were unfriendly to outsiders.
  • +I learnt a lot about different Christian religions and doctrines
  • +I met interesting people
  • +God was slowly giving me clarity
  • -It was confusing – people were actually ignoring the Word for their own warped version!
  • -I was still without a church
• I have been part of and seen more support, outreach, giving, wisdom and service from independent Bible study groups, not associated with any ‘church’.
  • +Supported and nurtured.
  • +Listened to
  • +Accepted for who I am
  • +Shared opinions, friendly discussions and debate
  • +Shared experiences, resources, knowledge and wisdom
  • +Safe, non-judgemental environments
  • +Shared vision and genuine faith
  • -The closeness can be draining and demanding
  • -There can be a sense of obligation
  • -An unresolved disagreement between two parties can be problematic for the whole group (it must be sorted very quickly)

And I have to point out that this module missed an important verse;

Matthew 18:19-20

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. <b style=”background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

While I know that this was ensuring the Jews didn’t insist that there needed to be ten people present to make a congregation (I think that was the number-don’t quote me), it also points out that we don’t need a great number of people to be present to worship and exalt God as a group.

[Austin]

Well my first church I went through a church split, my second church I left because it was very cliquish my third church I went to the pastor fell into sin. I almost walked away from the church. Found a church at Boca Community that church changed a lot. Then I went to another church and I believe I’ve found a church now that I want to be a part of.

[Austin]

Being plugged into a local church has been modeled to me for as long as I can remember. My parents modeled serving in church and when I was able to serve, I began serving as well. That has led me to quickly connect with leaders in the church and allowed me & my family to be connected. Oftentimes, unfortunately, it is primarily the responsibility of an attendee to make the first move of connection, especially as number of church attendees rises.