more church connoisseurs

As a church connoisseur, I appreciate the subtle and not-so-subtle varieties in the variety of ways that the people of God worship and praise and preach or teach. Like a wine connoisseur who can enjoy different kinds of wines, worshiping in a variety of ways with a variety of personalities and persuasions can likewise be enjoyable and edifying.

There’s a few others that have crossed my radar: Here‘s someone who has become quite the connoisseur of church signs. All Saints Boughton Aluph has been described as a connoisseur’s church. One church connoisseur has been influenced by his church-hopping Dad. And to take a more grassroots consumer product review approach, there is ChurchRater.com .

For me, being a church connoisseur does not mean being elitist or snobbish, nor does it necessarily take away from loyalty for relating deeply at one local church, and certainly it does not detract from having one’s personal theological convictions. To connect with the people of God deeply and widely both at the same time enhances my perspective of the multifaceted grace, though, granted, for some it can be disconcerting dissonance. Now, I’m not quite the journalistic observer when I worship at different churches, like these two guys below.

More recently, Dave Travis shared a few stories over at Leadership Network Learnings about his recent San Diego area church visits, titled I like the Diversity in Churches on his visit at North Coast Calvary Chapel and Over to Emmanuel Faith when he worshiped at Emmanuel Faith Community Church.

On a mini-pilgrimage (or excursion?), John Lee is on the front end of his 3-month Church Hop Extravaganza, visiting Westside Community Church near Toronto and then Harvest Bible Chapel. I hope he’s still touring and will post more observations of people worshiping in God-glorifying ways.