How Often do you got to Church?

Kirstenmumof3 wrote: I was just curious. My DH and I used to go to Church every Sunday and now we have kinda gotten out of the habit. I am also curious to hear what everyones religous beliefs are. We are Roman Catholic.

Boys r us replied: I'm a bad girl! We've also gotten out of the habit!
We go on Holidays(sometimes). This is something that I think about often, I reallyt want to raise my kids in a church with religious beliefs. But here's where my problem comes in...

I was raised in a baptist church, even went to a christian school associated with the baptist church for part of my school years. My husband was raised Greek Orthodox. That isn't really the problem, he would go along with the flow of where ever I chose to go, the problem is..I can't find ONE denomination that I can fully believe in..I find myself not able to commit to one church b/c in my eyes, there are none that represent everything I believe. So instead...we read the bible stories to our kids at home and teach them to pray and talk to God on their own. Tanner does go to a baptist church on wednesday nights with my cousin for their kid's club.

ediep replied: we go every week

Elle replied: We are not very religious, but we go to church on special occasions (Christmas, Easter, etc.) and our kids were christened when babies. We believe in God but practise the religion in our own personal way.

juliajaj replied: Olivia & I are Catholic & DH is Lutheran. I attend church services every week & make every effort to take Olivia with me. She's at the stage where sometimes she's really good, but the past couple of weeks, she'll sit for 5-10 minutes & then want to run around & play. My faith is very important to me, so I was feeling bad about not being able to pay complete attention to the church service. DH goes with us occassionally, but he typically stays home. A couple of weeks ago I told him I felt like I wasn't getting anything out of the service since Olivia didn't want to sit in 1 place for very long. I also get tired more easily now that I'm pregnant. DH said he would go to church with me & watch Olivia or he would keep Olivia at home while I go to church by myself. I'm hoping that once she gets a little older she'll want to sit quietly a little longer. The church also has a nursery that I need to look into. Hopefully once the baby is born, Olivia will be a little older so we could start going as a family.

For those of you that have kids ages 2 & over, I'd love to hear your suggestions on how to quietly entertain your children during church.

kimberley replied: i used to go every sunday but it isn't so easy anymore. since we moved and changed churches it is harder because this new church doesn't have a late mass (12:30pm at my old church) and since Jade has been born we just haven't been able to be up and ready by 11am very often. we go about once a month at the very least. hopefully we can get back into our routine soon. i am roman catholic too.

Jamison'smama replied: We go every Sunday --Jamison has her own little class and she loves it. We were raised Church of Christ but attend the Christian church now.

kit_kats_mom replied: We haven't gone to church yet as a family. I want to take K but it hasn't happened yet. I was raised Methodist and I don't have a problem with religion...except for the getting up early and getting dressed up part LOL. My DH on the other hand was raised Assembly of God, attended their school and feels like he really got a raw deal. For example, the God he was taught about was a mean god. As a 5 year old he was convinced that he was going to hell because when he closed his eyes he saw dark...not God. That has to be hard on a kid. He has some major issues with the religion that he was brought up in so I find it hard to approach him about church. He did say that he would be willing to attend the Methodist church with me to see what it is all about.

A&A'smommy replied: I voted every sunday, even though we JUST got back into it, I understand it is SOOO hard to get ready and get up, but lately alyssa has been getting up really early and going to bed early sooo therefore we have time to get ready ! LOL

5littleladies replied: We go every Sunday. Church is where I met DH. Our church is non-denominational-We simply believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to salvation.

Julie (jem0622) replied: I didn't vote b/c I am not signed in. BUT...we tend to go on major events (Christmas and Easter). DH was baptised Christian (born again) in 2001. I was raised Catholic. We were attending Christian services until shortly after my pregnancy. Nathan didn't do well in the nursery and I felt we were being disrespectful if we could not fully participate and pay mind (as a family) to the full service. And now DH works a graveyard shift and works his second job so I'd have to go alone. I really need to go back. I listen to Christian radio constantly.

Julie

booey2 replied: Hi, we are RC here and I used to go every Sunday as a young girl, even through University I went evey Sunday, then when I moved out here, we got kinda lax on going and now we try to go but don't seem to get there. We did go before the boys were baptised but with each of them we tapered off going because they started to get to be a handful during the service and we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves. Now that Thomas is getting older we are going to get back in the swing of things. We are going to start going again real soon because Matthew is in the Catholic School system here and makes his First Communion in two years. I feel something is missing in my life and I know it is Him, so we are gonna shake are booty and get there real soon.

coasterqueen replied: We are Lutheran. DH won't go to church anymore, he has his own issues Kylie and I used to go to church all the time when she was really little, but we stopped going when she started getting squirmy and I was also asked not to bf in the sanctuary anymore

We plan to go back soon when everything around us settles a bit, with Dh working on the basement and me with a second job, we just need to figure out how to get in the swing of things, so that I can go on Sundays. Kylie and I will start going again though soon.

mckayleesmom replied: Im catholic although I was never formely babtised and when we were little the kids went to church on wednesdays and sunday...Wednesday was more fun sundays school stuff. When I got older I would join my friends at their youth groups and those were Christian. I would like to go back to a catholic church..however...I think they are hard to find out here. I always see Lutheran and stuff...but never Catholic. Plus I don't know how to go about attending. Our parents always took us. Can you just walk in and start going to that church. I don't want to look like a retard. I haven't been to church since a kid. So I really don't know the etiquit (sp?). I know some churches you have to meet with the priest or pastor now too. I did go to xmas mass 2 years ago.

Julie (jem0622) replied:

It depends. Do you want to attend Catholic church regularly? You need to register with the parish. Then, since you are not baptized you would have to go through RCIA classes. I don't recall when they start...but they generally end close to the week leading up to Easter. You make all of your sacraments around that time.

If you wish to just attend a Christian church then I am sure that you would need to introduce yourself and then learn what their practices are (when they baptize and so forth).

I forgot to add that our boys were baptized Catholic. Nathan (4) was baptized at 4 mos and Gabe at 6 mos. Nathan just had water poured and oils on his head only and Gabe had a full immersion.

Julie

kimberley replied:

hmmm i guess our church is different. we did register the family because we wanted Jade baptised and Jacob is making his First Communion in May but it is not essential just to attend weekly mass. and Jamie is Anglican but belongs to my church without converting. our priest has talked to him about it but isn't pushing it and welcomes Jamie into the church.

Maddie&EthansMom replied:

Geez! That is terrible, Cary!! Poor guy! I was also raised Assembly of God and so was DH (for the latter part of his life) His grand dad was a baptist minister and when he passed away DH's mother joined the Assembly of God church. We never experienced anything like that.

DH considers himself baptist and we attend the First Baptist church here, but really haven't made it our home. To me it is all about attending a church in which you are comfortable enough to worship. We visited A/G churches around here and neither of us were comfortable there so we attend the baptist church. It's funny b/c DH and I were just talking last weekend about how we need to get back in church on a regular basis. I was in church every time the doors were open as a child and so was DH. It is really strange that we don't go as often as we should now. A shame, rather.


Thanks for the post....you got me to thinking!!

kit_kats_mom replied:
Yeah. I think that their church is more "cult like" than any other church I've attended and I've been to other Assembly of God services. I was really unconfortable at their church. His family is really out of touch with society and won't even watch tv unless it is the religious channel. It's really hard to talk to them about anything and he had to sever ties with some family members because they just kept trying to convert us. It was pretty wierd.

Maddie&EthansMom replied:

That is definetly very strange, but unfortunately is happening a lot more here lately. That is sad that he had to sever ties with his family.

MilMunchMOM replied:
I looked around for a church that was child friendly. In the very beginning of the service they call all the kids up and give them thier very own mini service. Immediately following that they go into a little classroom with sunday school teachers and learn through play and arts and crafts.
<Spilling Guts>
I believe in God and the bible......but I have always had a problem with "religion"...I feel that we created the different churches and if we will kill eachother over "religion" than...... is this really what god would have intended for us?? I was brought up protestant, became catholic by choice, years ago when I was engaged to a catholic man, and I now attend a methodist church.
God put forth some pretty solid ground rules to be followed in the bible, and all of the religions mentioned above follow those rules, they just do it a little differently.

~CrazieMama~ replied: I voted every Sunday... but I also go on Wednesday's. I so love my church and the people there. They are great and very caring. I have missed a few Sunday's though, but plan on getting back on track this Sunday.

Kirstenmumof3 replied: I wanted to Thank all of you for sharing your religous beliefs with me! I learned a lot from all of your posts!

kimberley replied:
we let them bring crayons and a coloring book and at the main entrance of the church there are weekly coloring pages for the kids. also, the 10am mass at my church is a children's mass and is loud and kid's roaming around everywhere but it is nice. the boys love seeing other kids and i can relax and focus on my prayers a bit more because i am not worried about the kids being noisy.

Lily replied: I don't believe that any one religion is "the" correct religion. I believe Jesus was/is the Son of God and that he died for our sins. I believe that what he was trying to teach everyone is that God is not in a specific building. That God is in everything, everywhere, always. And we need not search out a building to be with him. To worship him. Jesus said "Wherever you may be so shall I be" not sure if that's the exact wording. He meant that God is with us always no matter where we are if we believe in Him. Anyway, I respect everyone's choice of religion no matter what it may be.