|
|
The Great Church Hunt continues. I've visited Love and Faith Fellowship, 720 York Street in Newport, about four times now. Seems like a nice little church. They haven't said anything political yet, which is a definite plus. They're going to have a baptism this Sunday, which should be interesting. They believe in baptism by immersion. I do, too, so there's no conflict there.
I spoke to the pastor, Gordon Milburn, a bit before the Wednesday night service. He seems okay, somewhat conservative. He strongly believes in jail ministry and outreach, which is one of the things I've been looking for in a church. He comes from a Baptist background, though Love & Faith Fellowship is an independant non-denominational church. I'm basically a Baptist at heart myself, so I was pleased with that.
This church looks promising. It's not big. There's maybe forty people on a Sunday. That's not necessarily bad. Personally, I prefer a smaller church where you can actually get to know everybody.
Pastor Milburn gave me a copy of their Tenets of Faith. I'll list an abbreviated version here. They believe:
Nothing I can really disagree with here. It's possible my understanding of some of these tenets may be a little different from theirs, but I doubt it would be in any significant way.
All in all, I like Love & Faith Fellowship and at this point would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking for a small nondenominational evangelical church in Newport.
However, I've learned over many many years of church hopping that it takes a little while to really get a feel for a church. I'm reserving my final decision on them until I've seen a bit more.
So far, though, things are looking pretty good.