How Far Would You Drive to a Church?

[Salty]

You that important to your church or that weak away from it? .

The congregation feels that I am the one to help guide them thru this difficult situation. Is it tough on me to drive that far, while preparing messages? Yes, it is, but I believe the Lord has a purpose for it.

 

[Amy.G]

I live 20 minutes at least from my church depending on traffic. There are closer ones, but God hasn't told me to leave my current church.

 

[Matt Black]

Around 10 minutes' drive in our case. There are closer ones (including a Baptist one less than 10 minutes' walk away!) but we feel called to be where we are. My work is 10-15 minutes' drive away - same distance (3 miles) in each case but I drive to work in rush hour.

 

[FriendofSpurgeon]

Here's a common occurrence for our church:

• Family moves to our area, but they're happy with their former "home church" in Montgomery.
• for 3-5, or even 7-10 years, they continue to commute to church.
• then, one of the following happens:
  • the kids get older, and notice that no one from their school is in the church.
  • the parents get tired of the 30 minute commute every time the doors open.
  • (we weren't always a healthy church) the family discovers there's options out there for a church home that didn't exist several years ago.
• family joins our church after weighing options...

We probably see this scenario played out 20 times per year.

Great observation. I think you described us. We were in our old church for years. When we moved to a new house, we stayed there for about seven years after the move.

However, it became increasingly difficult as traffic increased and we were constantly dropping off/picking up our kids (now no longer babies) at different children events. This is hard to do when the event only lasts an hour or so. Also we noticed that there were no neighborhood/school friends at our church with our kids. Lastly, there were several ongoing issues that caused us to think if the old church was still the place for us - though there were no ill feelings with the pastor, staff, etc.

All of this created a time where we started to think if we should visit another church. We ended up at a sister church (same denom), but only three miles away from our home. It was a hard move in many respects. My wife and I met at that church. We were married there. The children's formative years had been at that church. They were baptized there. Each accepted the Lord at Sunday School there. And we had loads of friends there.

We still occasionally visit our old church. We still love the people there. Still have friends there. However, the move was the right thing for us to do.

 

[webdog]

I'm walking distance to a great Bible based church, but God brought me to my church 6 years ago that is now a 10 - 15 minute drive.

I think a lot of it depends on demographics. If I'm in a state or country where the only solid church is 2 hours away I would drive it.

 

[menageriekeeper]

Since there is a church on every street corner in my town, I pass or could pass (depending on the route):

2 Baptist churches
1 Independent Church of the Nazarene

A church called Praise Tabernacle or Deliverance Tabernacle (we have a church with each name, but I only pass one of them, the other one is over a block so technically I don't pass it)

1 Church of Christ
1 Christian Church (Diciples of Christ, I think)
1 Presbyterian
1 Methodist

and if I go north of my house to pick up someone, I'll pass:

another Baptist church
a Full Gospel Church of God of Prophecy

and there are even more! LOL

I go to the big Baptist church on the hill! And once upon a time I drove 20 miles to get there passing considerably more church, Baptist and otherwise! :laugh:

Find the church God wants you to be in and go there!

 

[FriendofSpurgeon]

Since there is a church on every street corner in my town, I pass or could pass (depending on the route):

2 Baptist churches
1 Independent Church of the Nazarene

A church called Praise Tabernacle or Deliverance Tabernacle (we have a church with each name, but I only pass one of them, the other one is over a block so technically I don't pass it)

1 Church of Christ
1 Christian Church (Diciples of Christ, I think)
1 Presbyterian
1 Methodist

and if I go north of my house to pick up someone, I'll pass:

another Baptist church
a Full Gospel Church of God of Prophecy

and there are even more! LOL

I go to the big Baptist church on the hill! And once upon a time I drove 20 miles to get there passing considerably more church, Baptist and otherwise! :laugh:

Find the church God wants you to be in and go there!

Wow - you do indeed live in the Bible belt! Here, there are a lot fewer churches. There are other churches close by in neighboring towns - only a few miles away, but in our town, we only have eight houses of worship --
1 Catholic church
1 Methodist church
1 Lutheran church
2 Presbyterian churches (1 - USA; 1 - PCA)
3 Synagogues (1 - reformed; 1 - conservative; 1 - orthodox)