Church Hunting: Ch Baptist Church

ChBC

One family we knew had been going there. It turns out they stopped before we visited so although we'd expected very much to see them, and asked some of the regulars, none of them knew that family. Strange.

This church is a startup, pastor apparently trained at Capital Baptist. Sermons sounded all right. They also meet in a high school.

The first rainy day we visited, we were late, by even 30 minutes! We got to the front door of the high school, could see the signs for the church, but there was no one and the door was locked. That's our fault. I was upset with myself for not pushing us out our door faster. So we left, now too late to go to a church close to our house. We went to Costco and family Bible Study instead. I understand, but still a locked door wasn't pleasant.

It turns out, the regulars go around the school to the back where an unlocked door right into the sitting area exists. Didn't know that. We went by the posted signs.

The second time we went, we were there. Lots of people, young families, navigating the halls, depositing and recovering children. They brushed right by us. We awkwardly got into the meeting room. And a few people came up to us, one by one. One young man, Achill, chatted with us at length.  Usually the younger adults are more shy around older adults, but this guy seemed very excited to meet a new face. And we spoke until frankly I was tired of the conversation. But it was very welcoming, and nice to trade information about lives with someone else. It made the distance feel smaller. Another family, apparently visiting, was a source of conversation too. It was a lovely group.

The young pastor started speaking to Rebecca, happy to have us. Now it's something I've noticed in many young pastors, that there is a degree of separation, even in their friendliness. Like they have to maintain the sense that they are pastors, leaders welcoming followers, as opposed to equals, even having his role and job in the body.

Contrast this with Tom Leake and HBC who, for all my criticisms as to how that church has gone, he exuded overt humility and had a weight-of-the-world-on-his-shoulders burden to him. You wanted to like him, wanted to trust him, and he seemed serious. The sense, and what you want, is that any authority he had was there, necessary, for our benefit. At least, that is how it seemed at the time. And we wanted to come back, knowing little about the church, but impressed with how it's leader comported himself. The humility and pleasantness and kindness won us over very quickly.

I don't see that often.

This young man, was like many others. Maybe there's a feeling like he has to prove that he's a leader before he has a record to show that when he leads people they benefit. That's probably it.

The sermon was... iffy. On Jesus calming the waters. Not necessarily wrong, but the same sin as GBC. You picked a verse, and then used that as the launching point for what you wanted to say. At least he stuck more to the text, but he missed a few big deal take-aways, and highlighting things which were comparatively minor. Strikes me as a lack of attention, or maybe being too focused on what he wanted to say than let scripture speak for itself.

But there was another red flag. I don't remember the context, but membership seemed to be emphasized more often than would seem natural. Of course, any church has the right to include/exclude based on membership, but wisdom suggests that the more open the church is to outside, the better. There was a regular meeting to accept new members, that was apparently only for members to attend. In my mind, this is a great way for outsiders to see those who become part of the church. We want our practices open, and observable, in large part because we want to show Christ on display in our lives as often as possible (assuming He is).

When I got home, I read through their constitution carefully, and found the segment about membership where the church has a right to reject the withdrawal of membership for a number of reasons, not all of them linked to sins. That withdrawal of membership is conditioned upon consent of the elders.

I did more research and found this is a common function of 9marks churches which push heavily for membership, and many of those churches have numerous reports of the abuses. I can't accept more restrictive clauses for church constitutions where you trust that elders granted authority don't abuse it, but that pre-supposed evident trustability in specific people. Simply joining a church, and you pledge to submit generally.... while it may not be abused, it increases the potential for abuse.

Rebecca liked the church, I did too, but I didn't not think it would be wise staying. That covenant read much more like a legal document. HBC's and another I read were refreshingly less restrict. And even at HBC, we saw what was properly abuse.

I don't like how church membership is done, principally because I think it attempts to do with numbers and outward behavior what we really want in terms of substance, and the way we do it simply isn't geared to producing the substance. It isn't necessarily wrong when done. If you're already "there", the membership process is fine. But if you're not "there", the way we prioritize membership can take you further away.