What kind of Church is YOUR Church

[Carpenter]

I am curious as the various types of church philosophies...and which one you prefer or which one you think is the most effective.

There is the church that seems to operate with people always having furrowed brows crying faces and a somber attitude. It is very rare this type of church has a joyous outbreak where people are smiling laughing, and generally having a good time. The minister comes to the pulpit with a lined forhead talking about the fight, the debbil, power with a furrow, and angry indignation toward the world. The altar calls have more crying, moaning, and not a whole lot of joy but tongues and interpretation is a common occurrance.

Then, there is the church where the minister has a charasmatic personality, shouting about the goodness, the triumph, the joy, power with a smile, evangelists have a joy about them and the congregation is easily excitable. Altar calls are full of dancing, shouting, and fast and loud music. I remember in one of these churches the choir sang the song by the Winans..."Dancing in the Spirit" and the shouting service lasted for an hour or better. In the church I described above, they denounced the song as being nothing more than cheerleading.

Lastly, is the intellectual church where deep and meaningful sermons are preached, there isn't a whole lot of moaning, groaning, weeping nor crying, nor is there an atmosphere of running leaping and dancing. Instead there is deep introspection and personal worship, a personal power, and principals brought forth regarding Christian living. Altar calls are introspective, and there is more one on one evangelism. The above two churches would call this one dead...

Maybe someone has another type, but even though I have a lack of ability to describe the different personalities, maybe someone can add theirs...

[berkeley]

Of the churches that you described, which would you rather attend?

[Carpenter]

Originally Posted by Berkeley

Of the churches that you described, which would you rather attend?

Probably the third type, but I like a little of the first and second mixed in...

[seguidordejesus]

Mine is a mix of the first and second, with about 10% of the third.

The mix is that there's lots of talk about the devil, etc., like you described, but with not quite as many furrowed brows

I'd prefer mostly #3 with about 20% #2 and 5% #3

[berkeley]

Originally Posted by Carpenter

I am curious as the various types of church philosophies...and which one you prefer or which one you think is the most effective.

There is the church that seems to operate with people always having furrowed brows crying faces and a somber attitude. It is very rare this type of church has a joyous outbreak where people are smiling laughing, and generally having a good time. The minister comes to the pulpit with a lined forhead talking about the fight, the debbil, power with a furrow, and angry indignation toward the world. The altar calls have more crying, moaning, and not a whole lot of joy but tongues and interpretation is a common occurrance.

Then, there is the church where the minister has a charasmatic personality, shouting about the goodness, the triumph, the joy, power with a smile, evangelists have a joy about them and the congregation is easily excitable. Altar calls are full of dancing, shouting, and fast and loud music. I remember in one of these churches the choir sang the song by the Winans..."Dancing in the Spirit" and the shouting service lasted for an hour or better. In the church I described above, they denounced the song as being nothing more than cheerleading.

Lastly, is the intellectual church where deep and meaningful sermons are preached, there isn't a whole lot of moaning, groaning, weeping nor crying, nor is there an atmosphere of running leaping and dancing. Instead there is deep introspection and personal worship, a personal power, and principals brought forth regarding Christian living. Altar calls are introspective, and there is more one on one evangelism. The above two churches would call this one dead...

Maybe someone has another type, but even though I have a lack of ability to describe the different personalities, maybe someone can add theirs...

When I started attending First United in 1997 the services were like what you described in the second scenario. Tongues and interpretation was not uncommon.
After 3 or 4 years we started to have the types of services in scenario 1.
When I left scenario 1 was dominant. I'm not sure what's going on there now.
The odds of scenario 3 are slim to none.

[CC1]

My church is the "lastly" scenario!

[Margies3]

If I had to choose from those 3, I'd say we were primarily #3.

Our pastor is very intellectual. He teaches at the University of Toledo part-time, in fact. But he is also a man of tremendous faith. I have the highest respect for him and feel blessed to call him my pastor.

Originally Posted by Carpenter

I am curious as the various types of church philosophies...and which one you prefer or which one you think is the most effective.

There is the church that seems to operate with people always having furrowed brows crying faces and a somber attitude. It is very rare this type of church has a joyous outbreak where people are smiling laughing, and generally having a good time. The minister comes to the pulpit with a lined forhead talking about the fight, the debbil, power with a furrow, and angry indignation toward the world. The altar calls have more crying, moaning, and not a whole lot of joy but tongues and interpretation is a common occurrance.

Then, there is the church where the minister has a charasmatic personality, shouting about the goodness, the triumph, the joy, power with a smile, evangelists have a joy about them and the congregation is easily excitable. Altar calls are full of dancing, shouting, and fast and loud music. I remember in one of these churches the choir sang the song by the Winans..."Dancing in the Spirit" and the shouting service lasted for an hour or better. In the church I described above, they denounced the song as being nothing more than cheerleading.

Lastly, is the intellectual church where deep and meaningful sermons are preached, there isn't a whole lot of moaning, groaning, weeping nor crying, nor is there an atmosphere of running leaping and dancing. Instead there is deep introspection and personal worship, a personal power, and principals brought forth regarding Christian living. Altar calls are introspective, and there is more one on one evangelism. The above two churches would call this one dead...

Maybe someone has another type, but even though I have a lack of ability to describe the different personalities, maybe someone can add theirs...

Carpenter~ I've been a part of all three. When I was younger in the Lord I needed one and specifically number two type of churches, I needed a three time a week fix to get me through to the next fixed!

Many years have gone by and now I like number three, God is God I don't need any reassurance of who He is, it's a deeper walk that does not need a fix or move to reinforce this. Out of them all I've learned the most about my God and His love for us, under this type of church~

[Sam]

For a little over a year now we have been part of a church about 9 miles from our home. It is called The Hamilton Dream Center. Their web site is:
http://www.hamiltondreamcenter.com/

We don't keep attendance figures but I would guess that on Sunday mornings we have a little less than 200 people. After the first hour those who are in school up to sixth grade leave the auditorium for "Children's Church." We don't have a Sunday night service. On Wednesdays there are about 35 adults in the midweek service in the auditorium. At the same time there are little ones in the nursery, kids in Children's Church, and Young People in a separate meeting called "Wild Fire."

We are an inner city church and our emphasis is on serving the neighborhood. On Saturday mornings we cover the local neighborhood and some nearby hotels to take food to people, pray with/for them, and invite them to come to our church and to call us for help.

We dress informally and worship is mostly "contemporary" style music. There is not a lot of emotion, shouting, dancing, etc but it is not formal either. It's a pretty good mix. The pastor has a real shepherd's heart and is very down to earth and a very caring person. He also has a great rapport with youth and children (maybe because he was a Youth Pastor at another church in the area at one time).

On Easter we had a "guestimated" crowd of 400 and quite a few went to the altar for prayer.

This morning his message was on Galatians 5:16-25 with the emphasis on living by means of the Holy Spirit and crucifying the flesh. He emphasized not splitting up our lives and only giving a small piece to God but giving Him everything. He emphasized that if/when we fail by giving in to the flesh, we need to admit it right away and keep going and growing. He often uses the NLT. Here is his text from this morning:

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

to be continued in part 2

I would have to say mostly #3

I think every church has a mixture of all at times but each normally has a distinct personaility.