Searching for a church home in college

The city in which I am attending college must certainly be one of kind. The number of churches in this city seems incalculable. During the days leading up to the start of classes, my university held a church fair, allowing a large number of the local churches to all set up in one location. Needless to say, this has left a strange memory in my mind of dozens of different church representatives all approaching me to "encourage" me to attend their church. I would never have expected to be pursued so furiously by, of all things, churches. Nevertheless, I do see benefit in this practice. It allows college students who might take weeks or even months to get a feel for where they might want to go to church the opportunity to make their search less broad and more focused thus decreasing the time needed to find a new church home. Also such a church fair might facilitate prospects for future evangelism by attracting people with to no prior church experience.

When I first heard about the church fair on campus I was excited and eagerly anticipated the event. Upon entering, after the initial shock toward the huge crowd of people and booth displays that is, I went around to several different booths, sometimes approached by representatives who preferred to take their booth on the go all around the gym, and collected information on the churches. I quickly noticed that one primary feature each church made sure to mention was the size and composition of its congregation: whether it was made up of mostly college students or mostly adults or a more even mixture of the two and how big said congregation was. Obviously some people like a megachurch sort of feel and others clearly enjoy a much smaller and more communal experience. Denomination also plays a much more subtle and arguably more important role in the decision of where to attend although the importance of the differences between denominations could certainly be debated. I grew up in a nondenominational church environment and have attended a baptist and methodist church before. The only really discernable difference in all of these was the style of worship which really does not come down to doctrine at all but more to the preference of the congregation.

Nearly three weeks have come and gone since this church fair and I have attended three churches since. Last week I attended Highland Baptist Church and I enjoyed most over the previous two. Although my search has certainly not come to a complete end, I am seriously considering jumping in where I currently stand at this point. I understand that choosing a church constitutes a very pivotal decision in the college experience and that caution must be exercised; however, when I look at Highland's philosophy and the way their preachers conduct a service and then contrast it with my own view, I see little to no difference at all. In addition, they put on many events that sound like fun and they also offer a compelling small group experience that appeals to me greatly. All in all I loved my experience at Highland Baptist Church. Despite all this I still feel as though it might behoove me to feel around a bit more before completely establishing roots. May God aid me in this endeavor.