Church visits

Visiting: As a student of religion, I've seen how various factors in a church visit affect spiritual growth and religious attitudes as one searches for a church home. I visit churches to observe, firsthand, how they present themselves to visitors. My visits, with a few exceptions, focus on Christian churches. This blog contains accounts of those visits, and related posts. I look for the following in my visits:
• Friendliness and warmth
• Genuine welcome, true Christian hospitality
• Effective, well-delivered bible-based main teaching
• Music deepening the worship, not just entertainment

Map to churches I have visited.
My email: churchvisits@gmail.com

Visiting Anchorage - Looking for a Friendly Service? - 5/19/2013 11:16 am

Guest Post: Why Theology Matters to Musicians - 5/4/2013 4:09 pm

Easter Without the Trimmings at Cornerstone Church - 4/18/2013 10:06 pm

Central Christian Finally Updates Website Worship Times - 4/10/2013 10:15 pm

Beer & Hymns: Great Fun & Successful Fundraiser - 4/9/2013 10:19 pm

REMINDER: Beer & Hymns tonight! - 4/7/2013 11:38 am

UPDATE: Central Christian's Posted Worship Time on Website Still Wrong! - 4/7/2013 11:24 am

Central Christian Disappoints -- BIG TIME! - 4/2/2013 3:03 pm

Church Visits Google Map Goes Over 10,000 Visits!

Follow my church visit activity at Twitter.com/ChurchVisits

People are looking for Anchorage churches to visit. The custom Google map of churches I've created, based on my visits to them, has just gone over 10,000 visits. View my map by clicking HERE.Google Map of Churches I've VisitedGoogle Map of Churches I've Visited

Some pastors and parishioners are all too eager to discount my visits as being too hasty, harsh, and biased when it's been a bad visit. Restaurants are often in the same position when seeing an unfavorable review. However, I do revisit churches that do not live up to the criteria I use in a visit. They are also listed in the right pane on this blog and include:

• Friendliness and warmth
• Genuine welcome, true Christian hospitality
• Effective, well-delivered Bible-based main teaching
• Music deepening the worship, not just entertainment

It's easier to curse the reviewer than take a hard look at church practices which prompt my comments. Second visits to the same church tend to reveal consistency, i.e., if a church is unfriendly on the first visit, they're likely to be unfriendly on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th visit. Visitors generally take 5-7 minutes from arrival to decide whether or not they'll make a return visit.

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