12. I tend to look for others who have similar spiritual activities as I do when I choose my church.

(Before looking at the questions below, take a few minutes to think about this statement. Invite Jesus to speak to you about what He would like you to notice.) 

Why is it that we often choose to worship with others who are very much like ourselves in worship styles, social class, ethnicity, and theological beliefs?

What do you think could be gained by stepping outside of our familiar forms of worship?

There are hundreds of church denominations in our world. What do you think God thinks of that?

What could be good about it? How might this be unhelpful to God’s desire for us and His Church?

What would the obstacles be for you to explore other forms of worship?

The spiritual activities that we choose can be divided into those we do with others and those we do in private. Our corporate spiritual activities are typically those we share with others in church or in a group. 

Not all churches practice the same spiritual activities and those that do share practices may vary in their approach to the activity; an evangelical church service will have a different “feel” than a Catholic church service. A charismatic church service has differences from a church that is passionate about social justice. Churches often divide over what they consider to be essential spiritual activities and the presence of so many denominations attest to the importance that many churches place on their beliefs and activities. 

When choosing a church to attend, we often tend to look for churches that reflect our own preferences for spiritual activities. This is to be expected and can be good for our spiritual health. But there are dangers to be aware of as well. One is that we can develop an attitude of judging those churches whose activities are different from ours. We may assign values to activities, either positive or negative, and even become legalistic about our activities. 

Often we aren’t aware of our attitudes and may unintentionally or unconsciously promote our own activities as superior. We must remind ourselves that God has created us with differences in how we connect with Him and we should consider that someone who connects with God in an activity that is different than ours is still connecting with God. Gathering with like-minded Christ followers can be a great source of joy and encouragement but we will be helped in our journey if we keep an open mind about those whose spiritual activities are different from ours. 

Our openness can also lead to us discovering meaningful spiritual activities that we were not familiar with. We don’t know what we don’t know and if we never explore other ways of doing church, we might fail to discover the unknown ways that we could connect with God. The universe attests to God’s unfathomable diversity and we owe it to ourselves, and God, to explore the diverse ways that He has created us to be able to join others in being with Him.