And I'm scared to do so, but please let me explain. I was raised in a very atheistic where even mentioning God or the Bible would draw the ire of my parents. I'm 20 now, I still live at home while I attend University.

Anyways, about three months ago I was diagnosed as having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and as I've gotten better over this time I have felt myself wanting, or needing, to believe in something greater than myself to help me get over it for good.

To this point I've lived a very Christian-esc likestyle of not drinking, smoking or doing drugs, which as you can imagine makes it very hard to find friends and I think by opening myself up further to the Lord I have a chance to meet some fantastic people.

What I'm scared about then? Well mostly is that I don't know what denomination I should follow, although I'm certain I would be protestant. My other fear is not knowing the "rules" around the Church. I walk by a Gospel Church on my street a couple times a week but I never walked in to introduce myself to the Pastor because I'm afraid of not knowing any of the rules. First, am I just allowed to walk in? What should I tell him? What should I call him? These are all symptoms of my OCD, but if you guys were to help me work up the courage by telling me what you think I should know before I start to walk around and meet some of these Church Pastors it would be a load off my mind.

Thanks a ton for listening to me, I can be long winded :)

Greetings Reagan,

I'm not so sure that OCD is the reason you are holding back from entering the church you talk of, but I won't dispute that.... but let me reassure you that I for one, and I think it would be true of many here, found taking the step into a Christian world a bit nerve wracking and was hesitant to say the least!
In my mind, it was all rather strange, and I felt I was not a Christian, so would be the odd one out! There were lots of other thoughts, too...

But the beauty of Christianity is it is a gift to us from God, and has nothing to do with who we are, but who He is, and what He wants to give us.

May I suggest you take a breath, and just go in and say, "Hi" to the folks at that church. You should find that you are welcome, and that all those questions you have about what to say or think are fulfilled as you speak to the Pastor and people there.

And YES! you can just walk in, and sit right down...
Reagan, I want you to know this, that the Lord will not ever reject you if you want to come to Him. He waits for you with arms outstretched in love.... oh how He waits... and I am sure that even now He is calling you... and that is why you are even thinking of seeking Him... and let me also tell you, that He only wants to bless you with His love.

The one you seek is Jesus.

If you really want something to ask when you go in, just say this...
"I am looking for Jesus"

As for rules, don't worry about it. One thing that really struck me when I first entered a church was that I was accepted and shown love, not because I knew any so-called rules, but because the people who were there were Christian and loved the Lord and wanted to share that love with me.

Going to church is not about rules, it is about coming together to be one with the Lord in fellowship with one another... it is about Jesus Christ the Lord.

Hope this helps!

Bless you ....><>

Br. Bear

Hi Reagan, welcome to TJ. I was wondering, have you had any kind of encounter with Christ? Are you seeking a religious experience? If you are seeking Christ, you can do this right where you are now without having to attend any religious service or the assistance of a clergyman(pastor). If it's a real encounter and experience with Jesus the Christ that you desire then simply seek Him and He is able to reveal himself to you apart from any kind of natural assistance. If you really want to know Jesus, He makes Himself available to all, just call out to Him. There's no rules, steps or formulas that need to be followed, if a genuine, simple encounter is what you are seeking because Jesus is not shy nor is He arrogant. I think you are in for a very pleasant surprise, there's no one like Jesus.

While sending a PM to a brother I was reminded of an excerpt from Manfred Haller's book "God's Purpose, Christ All And In All".

Thanks for the advice so far guys, it has helped put my mind at ease. As for just walking in and sitting down for a service, do you think it would be possible for me to say, walk in on a Tuesday afternoon and meet the pastor beforehand to speak with, or do you believe phoning and asking for an appointment would be a more tactful way of handiling that?

And in regards to knowing Christ, or experiencing him, I do pray when I'm feeling lost. About a year ago a doctor found a mass, and I prayed and prayed for it not to be cancer, and it turned out to be something simple. I think it helped me get through that a lot easier than I might have otherwise.

Whether you decide to go into the church or not...The wonderful thing is that you are seeking the Lord and He is seeking for you. You prayed before...simply pray again that He will lead you to Himself and show you the way of salvation.

Seeking Jesus?
Jesus seeks thee
Wants thee as thou art
He is knocking, ever knocking
At thy heart

Dost thou feel thy life is weary?
Is thy soul distressed?
Take His offer
Wait no longer
Be at rest.

The church probably has someone who serves as the church secretary on at least a part-time basis. Contact that person regarding an appointment with the pastor, as a pastor's work often involves being away from the church building. Also, many churches have web sites and some operate as what are known as cyberchuches. Do a web search for Christian Churches. That will give you quite a number of sites to explore.

If you are interested in starting with a web search, send me a p.m. and I'll see what I can do to help. In your p.m. please remind me that I've volunteered to help you start a church search on the web. I'm a fast forgetter.

SLE

You folks have been great :) I tried phoning the Gospel Church on my street, but they didn't answer. I then tried calling a Baptist Church also nearby (I live by at least 30 Churches), and when they didn't answer I wrote them an e-mail explaining I was not a member of their Church, but I would like to meet with the pastor to talk about it with him/her.

This Church is rather large I believe though, and I think I'd like to join a smaller one so I can develop friendships with some of the members easier.

Welcome to TJ brother! hope you will enjoy your time here!

Firstly you have to know that the Lord don't care how you look or if you have any sicknesses or anything else! He loves you, his love is greater than your wildest imagination, bigger than your wildest thought, bigger than biggest, smaller than smallest etc.

To share how i came to christ.

I am now 14 years old, i am at the moment living in the netherlands (i am swedish in real) My family has always gone to church, but i didn't like the church i was in at all as i thought it was soooo boooriingg!!!
When i was in the 3rd grade i had a period of depression, then i don't mean depression as in being sad and crying, but a real depression, my parents caught me many times with the knife against my chest trying to make suicide. I wanted something to help me, my self believe was not at the top for the moment. Then I saw my bible since i was little, i started to read i read the whole bible (the simple version) in only a few days. But i still didn't go to church, then in 2005 i moved to the Netherlands for my fathers work. Here everything was new and scary. My parents found an international church in a neighborhood not far away. They went a few times but i didn't want to go because i had the rhythm from Sweden. But then my grandmother called me and said that there was a girl who had visited her brother living in the same town as them. This girl lived in the same neighborhood as me, her sisters husband was the priest in the church my parents went to. I finally decided to go to the church and see how it was, i was there one time and after that i was there nearly all the time! This girl and her neighbor taught me everything, they gave me book and soo on. And yesterday (22/6-08) i was baptized and accepted Jesus for real in my life.

The message with my life story is that God wants you to seek him, he wants you to to seek him as you are. And that if you pray you will recieve!

About the rules... the pastor in our church drinks alcohol! The members smoke! We even have a few that are addicted, but they all become one at church. Their sins are forgiven as everyone else!

thoughts & prayers

remember: in christ alone your hope is found, he is your everything!

Emma (safeinchrist)

P.S i recommend you to listen to "in christ alone" and " awesome god" they are the most powerful songs ever created in my opinion!

Hi,

Good for you Reagan. I'm going to church since April this year. And I also wrote the pastor of the Baptist Church an e-mail before I went there. Explaining everything I felt etc. This e-mail was read out loud to the whole church when I was officially introduced as a new member...
I hope you like it at the Baptist Church. I do anyway. They're such nice people, making you feel welcome. I hope you will have the same experience !

Hiya,

As a new Christian, or a seeker who isn't sure about one's place with Christ yet, it might actually be better for you to try to find a Bible believing *non* denominational church.

My experience has been that *all* earthly denominations are Christianity peppered with some kind of human interpretation, tradition, or belief. Now that's fine if they *know* they are practicing mortal tradition alongside the Gospel -- and if those traditions do not in any way conflict with the Word of God -- but it can also be a dangerous snare if you find yourself in an unbiblical "church" that teach the doctrines of men as if it came from the Lord.

For example, the Catholics have a lot of traditions that Protestants find to be less than scripturally sound. I'm not going to argue one way or the other here, but you cannot be Catholic without embracing *all* of their rules.

By contrast, the local Church of Christ refuses to use musical instruments in their services - preferring a capella music - but they come out and say this is a human tradition of their church based on the simple lack of any mention of musical instruments being used in the New Testament early church -- not on any actual Scripture that says "do not use musical instruments" (because no such Scripture exists and the 150th psalm actually specifically says *do* use instruments hehe).

----

The first thing you should do is get a decent list of churches in your area. Don't flatly rule out the Catholics or Eastern Orthodox or some of the other more fringy churches either -- you never know if God has a priest or minister in place somewhere you wouldn't normally claim actual membership. Some of the best Christian learning I got was from a Jesuit priest who was teaching a math class I was taking for university credit.

The second thing you should do is pray to Jesus to guide you to narrow the list (because it will start out as a really big list if your cities are anything like mine here in the States).

The third thing you should do *after* praying (not before) is go over the list and remove any churches with traditions you *know* in your heart you just would not be comfortable with. You may surprise yourself. I used to be very uncomfortable with "charismatic" churches, but I found that when I let *God* pick my church list for me, the Holy Spirit convicted me to leave some charismatic churches on my list. I learned some very special things by visiting those specific churches, though I'd have never picked them myself.

Once you get the list down to about 5, take the time to call them. Find out if they have a seeker's orientation. Find out if they are a *Bible believing* church. Ask if they are Jesus-centered. Too many "churches" around where I live make it through whole sermons without mentioning Jesus...that should not be. He *must* be the focus and core of any solid and anointed church.

You will find your list narrows even more...and then you will be able to explore groups with whom you can grow and fellowship. But don't expect to spend forever in one church group for there is no such place.

WE THE PEOPLE are the Church -- not the building...not the organization. As long as you get your marching orders from God, you'll be fine. That may mean you settle into a local community of worshippers till the end of your days on Earth -- or that may mean you travel from group to group as God directs. Be open to how He plans to use you and all will be well :)