Hello, All.

One of the most frequent questions I've been asked by people I've helped to leave Revivalism is, "what church should I attend?" The wag in me generally responds with, "a Christian church of course!" but humor aside, at the heart of the question lies an acknowledgement of the unfamiliar. When all one has ever known is the 1-2-3 Revivalist nonsense, it's very easy to seek out the familiar, or perhaps the nearly so. It's due to this a majority of former Revivalists inevitably gravitate towards Pentecostal groups, but this can be dangerous in that it can reinforce mistaken assumptions about what it means to be Christian. And I speak from personal experience given I followed this path myself. A decade, and significant study later, I weaned myself off the Pentecostal at around the same time I first became active on the original counter-RCI web forum (i.e. 1999).

By way of a summary: I spent three and a half years a Revivalist, ten years a Pentecostal, and twenty-five years as a generalist Christian. Given my career led me the length and breadth of Australia, I've been intentional in fellowshipping as broadly as possible, choosing a different denomination with every move. Consequently, I've had the opportunity to experience the landscape and diversity of Protestant Christianity as broadly practiced in Australia: Anglican, Assemblies of God, Baptist Union, Christian City Church, Christian Reformed, Congregational, home church movement, independent evangelical, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Uniting. While every group on my list has its own distinctives (whether theological, cultural or political), there are features in common among those I rate most highly. So it's the features I advise people to look for more than any particular denomination.

The following represents the key criteria I personally look for in a church

1. A solid proclamation and defending of the biblical Gospel. A Christian church should major on the majors, while also acknowledging that valid differences of opinion exist in many secondary and tertiary areas.  

2. A plural, inclusive and suitably trained leadership incorporating men and women, and both ordained and lay leaders. 

3. A commitment to working interdependently with Christians and churches outside denominational boundaries.

4. An active, intentional and interdependent discipling of all church members, ordained and lay.
   

5. A commitment to engagement with the broader local community, by being available to others in bad times and well as good, including with respect to relevant and appropriate social justice issues.
   

6. An emphasis on identifying spiritual giftedness across the church community. This will foster the training, equipping and releasing of church members into their particular and unique fields of ministry, creating a church of active providers rather than a majority of passive consumers.

7. A broad and diverse membership with respect to age, gender, race, education, social demographic and abilities.

8. A promoting of life, connections and relationships outside the immediate church community. In short, one shouldn't be spending more than a few hours each week with the same groups of "churchy" people. 

It's worthwhile mentioning that membership / followship (the spelling is intentional) in a particular expression of Christianity isn't grounds for excluding Christians whose differences might, at first, seem insurmountable. For example, I'm good friends with several Roman Catholic priests and deacons, and a few Orthodox clergy as well. These ancient communions are sacramental in their theology, and highly liturgical in their practices, and it's in these areas there are very real barriers to full communion. So while I will occasionally attend Roman Catholic and Orthodox services, out of respect and courtesy I won't partake of the Eucharist because I understand what it signifies to them. My Catholic / Orthodox brothers and I consistently seek to be ecumenical in spirit, following Meldenius' example: "In essential things, unity; in non-essential things, liberty; in all things, charity." Why? Well, it pays to remember the New Testament writings from the Acts of the Apostles onwards demonstrates the early Church was extraordinarily diverse in culture and practice from the very start.  

Please consider.

Ian

email: didaktikon@gmail.com