Church Shopping

And how to become a beholder

We’re trying to find a church for our family now that we’ve moved to Malibu, California. Although we are Anglican, the nearest church is over an hour from us. We have visited a dozen of the nondenominational variety in the area, accompanying friends wherever we are invited. The process is so difficult not because we are trying to find a church that “suits” us (I’ve read C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, and I don’t want to fall prey to Wormwood), but because we want to serve and most churches want us to consume.

“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” —C.S. Lewis

Almost everywhere we go, the churches are seeker-friendly: they are trying to entice those who do not know God to come closer and see how God can fulfill them, change them, bring them joy. I delight in the motives, but I worry over the methods. I’m too aware of my sin to criticize; I’ll trust that God can move where’s He’s wanted. But for our family, I do not want my children to be formed into consumers. I don’t want them to think God is entertaining. I want my children to know how to lay down their lives….