I want to start going to church regularly. I haven\u2019t done that since my early 20s, and even then I would miss weeks at a time before I showed my face again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My preference is to go to a black church for cultural reasons, yet most of the ones I know of are pretty far from me. One of those cultural reasons is the choir. I need a good hand-clapping, toe-tapping choir to make my Sunday morning or evening (because sometimes I just can\u2019t be getting up in the morning on a Sunday, so that night service comes in clutch) complete. I\u2019ve gone to a couple white churches, and the choir just\u2026it just doesn\u2019t hit for me. I also went to a Hispanic church, and the preacher was really good, but again, the choir was singing those contemporary Christian songs, and I\u2019ma need some gospel, like some 90s-style gospel music belting from the choir stand. Although some of these black churches with younger congregants, where most of the people in the pews are in their 20s and 30s, be singing those contemporary Christian songs too. It\u2019s like what\u2019s up with that? Didn\u2019t ya\u2019ll mommas play Kirk Franklin when you were kids?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m sorry, but that 90s, early 2000s choir music is unmatched. I know Kanye West is a controversial figure, but his Sunday Service choir is on point (other than that cult-like garb he had them dressed in, but just my opinion). They really brought back that old-school gospel sound that I miss in church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think I\u2019m also a bit pickier now that you don\u2019t have to go to church to hear good preaching. You can turn on the TV and even more convenient, you can just watch YouTube and have your favorite preacher and sermon on demand. I\u2019ve never been much of a churchgoer. Even back in the day, when I was a teen, I watched it on TV more than I went in person. But for the most part, I had to wait until Sunday, when TBN would play pretty much back-to-back black preachers. I did watch Joyce Meyer through the week. She was like one of a few people who came on every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the thing you can\u2019t get from TV is the fellowship aspect, and that\u2019s a key piece that\u2019s missing. I would like to fellowship with other Christians whose beliefs are close to mine. People try to lump us together, but we Christians are as diverse as humankind itself. People interpret the Bible in all sorts of ways and believe all sorts of things. So it\u2019s important to me that I find people whose beliefs are similar to mine, they don\u2019t have to be the exact same, but similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d also like to go to a Bible Study. Now that is something I went to faithfully in college, every week. I didn\u2019t go to church, but every week I went to Bible Study. It was like a book club, where we were all reading the same passage of scripture and then we came together and talked about what we got out of it, and what we thought it meant. And it was just so enlightening to see the way different things stood out to different people \u2013 just how God spoke to different people in different ways through the same passage, and yet each interpretation was useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course I also need for the preacher to not be boring. My favorites right now are T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen. They have two very different styles, but each is very anointed and keeps my attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last night I made plans to get up and try this new church this morning, but I woke up late and would have gotten to church pretty late, so I stayed home instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s fine. I\u2019ll try again next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n