CHRISTIANITY 'Guide' gets down to basics of choosing a church

Carmen Renee Berry's book reflects the growing trend of shopping for a church.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Are you an Innie or an Outie?
Do you live inside organized religion or outside?
Lord knows, millions of Americans are outside the bounds of congregational life these days. Or, as Carmen Renee Berry would say, a zillion gazillion of us are.
That's the way the breezy Berry writes. She is the author of an unusual new book aimed at Christian Outies who are thinking of coming back inside, or who are restless in their current church homes.
It's called "The Unauthorized Guide to Choosing a Church" (Brazos, $19), and its hip packaging and prose may give the impression that Berry is one more Outie with an attitude.
For instance, she warns against places where "worship services are B.Y.O.S. (bring your own snake)" or "the women's quartet are all married to the pastor." Her headings include "Sorting Through the Liturgy, Lingo and Lunacy."
But like a good preacher, Berry manages to be both entertaining and substantive. Reverent, even.
The seeker's ultimate goal, she writes, ought to be a congregation "that understands the transforming power of Christ. Pick one where you can have God's story told to you over and over again, where you're invited to God's table to be fed and fed and fed until you are full."
A common search
Berry, 50, was raised in the Church of the Nazarene, left for a time, and has circled back in. Her split personality -- offbeat and earnest, independent and surrendering -- reflects the nature of many of today's postmodern sophisticates, particularly young adults, religion scholars say.
Randall Balmer, religion professor at Barnard College and author of "Religion in Twentieth Century America," said many sophisticates "do want to take religion seriously and are looking. I think her attitude is fairly typical."
The national statistics on "looking" -- call it shopping -- are remarkable.
Religion sociologist Robert Wuthnow of Princeton University polled 1,530 people nationwide in 1999 and found that 38 percent had shopped for a church or synagogue.
Also, Wuthnow said, a survey last winter of 2,910 people who attend religious services found that 50 percent "sometimes attend at other places," 37 percent of them "frequently" or "fairly frequently."
Broadening the net
And people who shop are looking far and wide, not bound by the denomination of their birth, Balmer said.
"We've reached an age in American religion where the shopping mentality, the consumer mentality, means people choose what appeals to them," he said. "Twenty or 30 years ago, if you were reared a Methodist and you moved, you'd find the nearest Methodist church and sign up. Now, people feel free to shop around. Their decision usually has to do with programs for their children and with a church's worship style."
It's gotten to the point, Wuthnow added, that "some of the 'seeker churches' that benefit from this trend have discovered that they can be victims of the shopping-around, too. So they try to have more intense small groups or service activities to draw people in and keep them."
For years, many traditionalist pastors have deplored church-shopping as crass and undermining to the congregational goal of long-term interpersonal commitment.
Berry, in an interview, said she understood the criticism, "but why stay someplace if it chafes and you won't grow?"
"I think it's valid to change community if one's needs and gifts change," she said. "We are consumers. And I find that we tend to research the brand of VCR we're going to buy more than the church we're in."
Berry, who lives in Sierra Madre, Calif., said she was a "burned-out" social worker who went on to pen self-help books. She mentioned to her agent that she had returned to church after a wide search -- and from that, the "Unauthorized Guide" project was born.
It's the only mass-market digest of its kind, she said, and scholars Balmer and Wuthnow concurred. Balmer praised the book, which he has read, as "kind of a Consumer Report about how to choose a church."
Points to consider
Berry is loaded with pointers. Some are obvious (beware of the glitz of large churches and of "control freak" pastors) and some not ("see how easy it is to get copies of financial reports ... if there is nothing to hide, nothing will be hidden").
She explores what she calls "Trinity affinity," the notion that some churches direct their worship to God the Father, some have a primary affinity with Jesus, and others emphasize the Holy Spirit.
"One way to sort out which church best suits you," Berry writes, "is to see if their Trinity affinity matches yours."
Berry provides the seeker with spry synopses of church vestments, creeds, icons, women's roles, the nature of heresy, and other topics. There also are self-evaluation checklists, a Christianity timeline and summaries of the histories, beliefs and styles of the major church groups.
"There are all kinds of normal, valid growth reasons to change churches," she said. "I believe, ultimately, that the Holy Spirit is involved and will lead you to a good church community."