[TenorD]

I have a couple of friends who attend a local Nazarene church, and I'm thinking of checking it out. Can anyone here give me the low-down on what to expect?

[mcmama]

I don't know what to expect, but I would like to hear as well. I will be relocating within a year, and Nazarene churches are in the area I will be moving to.

[QueenAngie]

Do we have any Church of the Nazarene members online?

I had two friends from a few years back that were members.
They went to church on Sundays AM, had youth group Sunday PM,
and Wednesdays too. It was a very active church.
That's all I can remember.

[TenorD]

I have been looking at the local church's website as well as the Nazarene website (www.nazarene.org), and I am very interested in what I have seen... but I'm still searching for first-hand accounts of what to expect. I plan on visiting the local church this Sunday, so we'll see.

[TenorD]

I went to church services this past Sunday with a friend of mine and was very excited afterwards. We sat with another friend's brother so we'd be more comfortable. I can say, first off, that it was very "spirited"! There was a choir and band (complete with electric guitarist and drummer), and I saw very few people in the congregation that weren't singing the songs - and there was no way in heck you wouldn't even tap your foot to the beat of the songs!

They had a guest-speaker because the church here is celebrating their 50th anniversary this coming weekend so I wasn't able to get a real-life view of what it normally is, but I'll be going again in two weeks when I'm back in town to get another look.

[MissyChrissy]

Originally Posted by TenorD

I went to church services this past Sunday with a friend of mine and was very excited afterwards. We sat with another friend's brother so we'd be more comfortable. I can say, first off, that it was very "spirited"! There was a choir and band (complete with electric guitarist and drummer), and I saw very few people in the congregation that weren't singing the songs - and there was no way in heck you wouldn't even tap your foot to the beat of the songs!

They had a guest-speaker because the church here is celebrating their 50th anniversary this coming weekend so I wasn't able to get a real-life view of what it normally is, but I'll be going again in two weeks when I'm back in town to get another look.

The band and swaying surprises me, because my grandparents are longtime members, and my aunt was married to a nazarine minister, and there's absolutely NO dancing allowed. The kids even had to quit dance classes (the kind little kids do) and I thought it was stupid. that is the single reason I won't go as a member. I'll go when my family has an event...they're nice enough people & I couldn't really find any differences from the church I went to as kid...but that dancing bothers me. Aunt Joanna even had to give up her Neil Diamond album that she had from a teenager! NO WAY! Supposedly, she learned in her school (she went to the same college her husband did to become a minister for them) that rock & roll music was the devil's music, and if you played it backwards it would tell you to kill yourself and die...or something equally horrible. That's bologna. Any music played backwards is going to sound wrong, and you can hear whatever you want in any backwards lyrics.

[mcmama]

Wow, that is strict!

Is it possible that tenord found a group that is more of a breakaway from the mainstream? Or do local congregations have different levels of authority?

[TenorD]

Originally Posted by mcmama

Wow, that is strict!

Is it possible that tenord found a group that is more of a breakaway from the mainstream? Or do local congregations have different levels of authority?

That may be the case, that different congregations have different levels of authority. I seem to remember reading (maybe on the Nazarene website?) that they now look at it as praise to God. So long as you do things to praise God, it's okay. I'll have to look that up again, though.

On the thought of different congregations... I was raised Catholic. The friend I took with me to the Nazarene church is Catholic. Her church is way more progressive than the church we were raised in - they have a band at the youth Mass and at all Masses they sing contemporary music - no pews there! The church we came from has pews, still says Mass in Latin at least once during Sunday services, sings hymns - very traditional. It's like being in a whole different world!

[mcmama]

I hear you about local authority. I was raised catholic too. It is not supposed to be so localized there, but often it is. I am surprised at the latin mass, because until recently, the Tridentine latin mass was banned.

My episcopal church is big on local authority, and I am having a hard time finding a church that is not too left wing for me. All those churches around here are losing members. But I can't say that there is a groundswell of interest in anything with contemporary worship, or a charismatic/pentacostal experience or an evangelical outlook. So I have pretty much stopped looking until I move. I find that I don't fit with the more conservative anglican churches either. I just want a new experience in worship.

Let us know how you make out, and what you find works for you and doesn't work for you. Church hunting when you are looking in different denominations and cultural experiences is a very soul searching experience.