The Search for the Perfect Church

I’ve been on this search for… ever. Yes, since I’ve had the desire to attend church weekly, I’ve been searching for the perfect one. The best people, the best music, the amazingly uplifting and biblical message every Sunday, the most moving experience… and I’ve been wrong to do so.

I’ve been looking at church bass akwards. I’ve been looking at it from a ‘what can the church do for me?’ perspective instead of a ‘what can I do for the church?’ perspective and worst of all, I’ve looked at the church as a building instead of a group of followers.

This is stopping now. I moved home five months ago and have bounced from church to church, not ever feeling like I’ve found the right one. This is my fault, and not the fault of any church. Sure, some of them just haven’t been good fits, but I think my standards have been earthly and not Godly, and the right church has been there all along.

I grew up Catholic but quickly cast that aside in college when I decided to head the relationship road, shunning the ‘religious’ side, because nowadays, it isn’t cool or biblically ‘right’ to be religious.

That’s wrong, too. I am a religious person. I am a spiritual person. I have a personal relationship with Christ. YOU CAN DO THEM ALL. 

I’ve made no decisions as of yet, but something occurred to me this weekend. Instead of going to a church that I’ve been interested in (a non-denominational, worship-based church) with a good friend, I decided since my brother was home visiting for the weekend that I would go to church with him and my father.

And I decided that I would really listen, and so I did. Lord in heaven, am I glad I did. It’s like God opened up my eyes – like He removed the scales.

I listen to the subdued hymns instead of the loud worship music, and I saw that they have the exact same message – just delivered more traditionally. I listened to the homily and found that it carried the same weight as every lengthy message I’ve ever listened to from any pastor, just delivered in a more matter-of-fact, simple fashion from our priest. The message this week was this: even in the hardest times, there is Christ with you, and when you look to Him, you can get through anything.

That’s no different than a message you’ll hear in any other church. It was pulled biblically from Paul’s letters, just like it would be in any other church.

I was surrounded by a body  of believers and by my family and I felt at home. I felt at home in a way that I haven’t felt in any of these other non-denominational churches.

Maybe a traditional setting is what I’ve been looking for. Maybe I want to rededicate myself to Catholicism. I don’t yet know and I’m going to take the time to figure it out.

I don’t know. All I want to tell you is this: There is no perfect church, no perfect body, nothing. There is only a perfect God.