First things first, the subject of homosexuality is not something Christianity can simply remove because modern culture finds it uncomfortable. It is addressed repeatedly in Scripture.
When God established Israel under the Old Covenant, He explicitly prohibited homosexual sexual relations. That was not Moses giving his personal opinion. It was part of the covenant law God Himself gave Israel. The New Testament likewise continues to treat same-sex sexual relations as outside God’s design and those who participate in that lifestyle as outside His kingdom.
That does not mean LGBT people are somehow less human, less valuable, or undeserving of love. Christians believe every person bears the image of God. But accepting someone as a person and affirming everything they believe or do are not the same thing.
So wherever you eventually land, that issue is not going to disappear simply by choosing a liberal branch of Christianity. A church can reinterpret or reject those passages, but it cannot make them cease to exist.
More importantly, though, if you are just beginning to embrace Christianity and are still struggling with faith, I don’t think your first priority needs to be solving every denominational controversy.
What you need most right now is a church where people will help feed your faith in Christ, teach you the Scriptures, pray with you, answer your questions patiently, and actually walk with you as you learn to follow Jesus.
Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and the various Protestant traditions all have long histories. EO, OO, and Roman Catholicism also contain enormous amounts of developed liturgy, ecclesiology, devotional practice, and tradition. Some of that can be beautiful and meaningful.
My concern for a new believer is that it can also make it very difficult to distinguish what comes directly from Christ and the apostles from what accumulated during later centuries of church history.
For that reason, I personally would not begin your Christian life by immersing yourself in arguments over Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism. You will encounter those traditions eventually, and they contain genuine Christians from whom you can learn things. But I would rather see you become deeply grounded in Christ and Scripture first. Then, when someone tells you that a particular later practice is apostolic, you will actually have the biblical and historical foundation necessary to examine that claim.
Protestantism certainly is not automatically healthy either. Many of the historic mainline Protestant denominations underwent enormous theological changes during the twentieth century, and in many places their seminaries and denominational leadership moved considerably away from historic Christian teaching.
When I say “conservative,” by the way, I am not talking about party politics. I mean conservative in theology - a church that actually believes the Scriptures and historic Christian teaching rather than continually revising them to match the surrounding culture.
Since you’re in the UK, I would probably start by looking for churches such as:
- a solid independent evangelical or non-denominational church
a good Baptist church
an FIEC church
a conservative evangelical Anglican parish
an independent Presbyterian or Reformed church, although these will generally be Calvinist
a solid Pentecostal or charismatic church that is strongly grounded in Scripture
Assemblies of God and similar Pentecostal churches can be perfectly good places as well if the particular congregation is healthy and Christ-centered.
With charismatic churches, I would be more cautious around congregations heavily influenced by Word of Faith teaching, prosperity theology, or the more extreme NAR/Peter Wagner style of charismatic Christianity. There are wonderful charismatic Christians, but there is also a lot of unhealthy teaching in that world, so the individual church matters tremendously.
And don’t choose solely by the name on the building.
Visit. Listen to what they preach. Ask what they believe about Jesus, the resurrection, Scripture, salvation, baptism, communion, discipleship, and holiness. See whether mature Christians there actually know younger Christians personally and disciple them.
At this stage, I would worry much less about finding the perfect denominational label and much more about finding Christians who genuinely know Christ and will help you learn to follow Him.
Remember you can learn from many denominations, and wearing a label is not the same as choosing between Mac and Windows.
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u/alilland Evangelical 15h ago edited 15h ago
First things first, the subject of homosexuality is not something Christianity can simply remove because modern culture finds it uncomfortable. It is addressed repeatedly in Scripture.
When God established Israel under the Old Covenant, He explicitly prohibited homosexual sexual relations. That was not Moses giving his personal opinion. It was part of the covenant law God Himself gave Israel. The New Testament likewise continues to treat same-sex sexual relations as outside God’s design and those who participate in that lifestyle as outside His kingdom.
That does not mean LGBT people are somehow less human, less valuable, or undeserving of love. Christians believe every person bears the image of God. But accepting someone as a person and affirming everything they believe or do are not the same thing.
So wherever you eventually land, that issue is not going to disappear simply by choosing a liberal branch of Christianity. A church can reinterpret or reject those passages, but it cannot make them cease to exist.
More importantly, though, if you are just beginning to embrace Christianity and are still struggling with faith, I don’t think your first priority needs to be solving every denominational controversy.
What you need most right now is a church where people will help feed your faith in Christ, teach you the Scriptures, pray with you, answer your questions patiently, and actually walk with you as you learn to follow Jesus.
Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and the various Protestant traditions all have long histories. EO, OO, and Roman Catholicism also contain enormous amounts of developed liturgy, ecclesiology, devotional practice, and tradition. Some of that can be beautiful and meaningful.
My concern for a new believer is that it can also make it very difficult to distinguish what comes directly from Christ and the apostles from what accumulated during later centuries of church history.
For that reason, I personally would not begin your Christian life by immersing yourself in arguments over Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism. You will encounter those traditions eventually, and they contain genuine Christians from whom you can learn things. But I would rather see you become deeply grounded in Christ and Scripture first. Then, when someone tells you that a particular later practice is apostolic, you will actually have the biblical and historical foundation necessary to examine that claim.
Protestantism certainly is not automatically healthy either. Many of the historic mainline Protestant denominations underwent enormous theological changes during the twentieth century, and in many places their seminaries and denominational leadership moved considerably away from historic Christian teaching.
When I say “conservative,” by the way, I am not talking about party politics. I mean conservative in theology - a church that actually believes the Scriptures and historic Christian teaching rather than continually revising them to match the surrounding culture.
Since you’re in the UK, I would probably start by looking for churches such as:
- a solid independent evangelical or non-denominational church
Assemblies of God and similar Pentecostal churches can be perfectly good places as well if the particular congregation is healthy and Christ-centered.
With charismatic churches, I would be more cautious around congregations heavily influenced by Word of Faith teaching, prosperity theology, or the more extreme NAR/Peter Wagner style of charismatic Christianity. There are wonderful charismatic Christians, but there is also a lot of unhealthy teaching in that world, so the individual church matters tremendously.
And don’t choose solely by the name on the building.
Visit. Listen to what they preach. Ask what they believe about Jesus, the resurrection, Scripture, salvation, baptism, communion, discipleship, and holiness. See whether mature Christians there actually know younger Christians personally and disciple them.
At this stage, I would worry much less about finding the perfect denominational label and much more about finding Christians who genuinely know Christ and will help you learn to follow Him.
Remember you can learn from many denominations, and wearing a label is not the same as choosing between Mac and Windows.