anyone else find it really difficult to choose a church/ denomination to be a part of?

[Yummers]

since starting on my spiritual journey a few months ago i have attended:

a united free church
evangelical
methodist
C of E

and i still don't feel i've found my 'niche'. if that makes me a shallow church hopper i apologise! the trouble is that neither the pomp and ceremony of the C of E, or the more relaxed evangelical style churches seem to be what i'm looking for. Both seem to rely on style over substance, with only a 10 minute sermon (the part i really find helpful) squeezed in. Sorry if i've inadvertantly offended any members of these churches, but i feel i must speak my mind...

with the C of E, i really felt i was just parotting back set prayers which didn't really mean much to me as a newcomer, for most of the mass, (sorry again)

and with the more evangelical churches it seemed over-simplified, unquestioning. and the hymns were those awful modern ones which only have about 10 words to them..(sorry)

the methodist was ok-ish but the minister is only there one week in six, and it's a 45 minute walk, not easy with a 22mth dd, so not really practical.

would be interested if anyone else has been through similar, apologies again if i'm sounding rather picky and critical.

10 minute sermon!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmm do any of them have a few services on a Sunday one of which has a more standard sermon of 30ish minutes? Even our short sermons (early service) are 15 minutes! Is there a baptist church nearby - again some of them are "high" baptist so more like traditional c of e in style other could be more ike the evangelical in style.

Yes, you sound like you're looking for a slightly more old-fashioned place. I'd recommend a Baptist church too.

this is a great book if you are interested in catholicism.

Where abouts in the country do you live? I ahd awful trouble finding a church, it took me a year of constant searching.

The problem was that most churches I went to didn't seem to really believe the Bible, which was off putting.

The most important thing you can is to pray for a church family; our sermons are at least 30 minutes of excellent expository preaching, and we have a good mix of both old and modern hymns...with the emphasis always placed on God in every part of the service. (I go to an evangelical church).

Try looking at the following links:
www.affinity.org.uk
www.aecw.org.uk

Yummers I don't think your shallow and I shall be following this thread with interest as I am kind of pondering the same thing. Even though I'm a catholic. But I mainly think it's because I don't much like our new priest and I've been to drop the children off at the Baptist Church youth club and the paster there seems really nice.

Difficult isn't it. I suppose that visiting other services is a good idea, I might try that.

Incidently, catholic sermons average out at 7 minutes, I've certainly never been to one more than 10 minutes long in 42 years!!!!!!!!!

I have been attending my church (Church OF The Nazarene) for about 17 yrs now! Its part of the Weslyan tradition - a Holiness church - see www.nazarene.org.uk for more info.

We have an all-age worship service in the morning from 10.30 till 12 with a creche and sunday school during the service. We have our own pastor and sometimes visiting ones, the sermons are usually 30-35 mins.

There are also weekly activities such as house groups which study the bible more intensively with a bit of 'social' time, a mid-week fellowship meeting on a Wednesday and childrens club/youth group on Friday evenings in term time. Just recently we have opened a coffee lounge which serves hot and cold snacks to the general public and the church offers a hot meals programme to people who are homeless.

We are based in Ashton Under Lyne but have churches in quite a few areas of the country.