From time to time, I read about a church or church group that sounds great. The only problem is there are no local congregations of that group that are close to where I live. Have you ever found yourself in this situation? What do you do? ...Scottish Monk
Scottish Monk, I'm not sure. I'm fortunate to be in a large city with many Churches and plentiful choices. I know this is a problem for many in smaller towns and rural areas. I suppose you find the Church that most truthfully and faithfully proclaims the Gospel of Christ. We probably all have more in common than we realize anyway. Though, the Eucharist is a serious issue, and some Protestants see this as merely a "church ordinance." Keep us posted. Anna
One of the first things to do is pray to God that all Christians who sympathise with this group be united to it in spirit; then, take up your sword, the Book of Common Prayer, and your shield, the divine Scriptures, and go to war. Nothing is better for curing the rifts of Christendom than spiritual warfare against the demons who have tried their hardest to breach the weak points. Uniting your heart and soul to the congregation or group that you wish you could visit is a big part of conquering the loneliness and disappointment that can come. When you pray for them with a contrite, honest, childlike spirit of love, God blesses abundantly like a happy Father - and their wings may spread, so that what was far away may come close to you, or you who were afar off might be given an opportunity to go to them! If you are with them in the spirit (of prayer), you are still part of that "two or three" gathered together in Jesus' Name. Distance is nothing, for "neither height nor depth, nor any creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." These are only first, preliminary, baby steps.
Whenever that's happened to me, I just leave it in God's hands and wait for his timing. I've tried driving far to visit an intriguing place, but that's not really feasible for me most of the time. I trust that the Holy Spirit leads me to the places where I need to be. If I'm meant to be (or visit/frequent) something new, I just wait until the opportunity presents itself. There have been a couple times where I wrote to various churches asking them to plant something in my area, but nothing has ever come of it. I gave up on that recently.
Sometimes. It can be a problem where I live. Where are you suffering from this issue? What sorts of churches do you want to get to?
I was in that situation. The CEC Church was in an area where I could not get to so I stayed in the Catholic Church until I was zooming to the Doctors and saaw that they moved close to me than I was able to go.
I live in a big city as well so I don't have that problem either... As a rule of thumb though I go to the closest Church in my area that has not let me down yet.