Church recommendations Durham/Chapel Hill/Hillsborough (live in, move to, campus)

[monkee1980]

Hi all,

Apologies for the long post in advance...

My wife and I are looking for a new church in the Durham/CH/Hillsborough area. We live in Durham right now but would like to move to Hillsborough in the coming year so we are trying to look for churches on that side of the triangle. We attend the Summit currently, and while I think it is a great church, after attending for 2 years, we are coming to the conclusion it does not fit us. Basically, we like the pastor and that's about it. We are young with a 6 month-old and felt the bulk of the church was our age or younger and would prefer a better mix.

I suppose we are looking for a blend of contemporary and traditional elements. I like traditional music, my wife likes contemporary, so a church with both would be good. We don't really care about denomination and would prefer a strong "thinking man's" sermon, if that makes sense. We also would prefer to have a congregation that is not huge like the Summit, more medium sized where we won't get lost in the shuffle, but won't be harangued for every absence.

What I would really be interested in is a Christian Unitarian congregation, but to my knowledge there are not any even in this part of the country. We are decidedly Christian and the Unitarian Universalist churches in the area are not our cup of tea.

Because of that more liberal/untraditional bent, I have read alot of the threads on here recommending churches and have looked at all of those on the progressive churches list, but it seems to me that so many of them focus on their openness towards LGBT on nearly every page of their website. I think it is great that they are open, but their socially liberal outlook seems to be their identity moreso than worship of God.

Thanks so much for the help. I have been reading church websites all evening and am running out of ideas

[FVmommy]

Have you looked at church of the good shepherd? I've only been once but it has some of what you're looking for: thinking mans sermon, mix of ages, But the music when I was there was almost all traditional. Some of that congregation has started a new church in hillsborough that I don't know much about but would imagine it's similar but smaller and probably more contemporary. I don't remember the name but think it had the word "river" in it.

We were focusing on Presbyterian and also visited blacknall near duke and Christ community in chapel hill - liked things about all of them but have decided not to move yet so haven't visited any of them more than once. All the ones I've mentioned seemed to have thoughtful/intellectual sermons which we liked. Christ community had the best blend of music I thought. All three had a good age mix, but each had it's distinct feel.

[PJPlatt]

Although I don't know the congregations in the area where you are looking, may I suggest you visit a United Church of Christ. As a past member who hopes to reconnect to the UCC when we move there, I think you'll find what you are looking for there. We visited Elon Community Church, a UCC congregation, last year and had a wonderful experience. Definitely warm and welcoming, with a terrific "thinking man's" sermon and exactly the mix of both traditional and contemporary music. Too bad it's to far west from the area you are searching in.

If you aren't familiar with the UCC, please don't confuse it with the very conservative Church of Christ. The United Church of Christ was formed in the late '50s when the Congregational Church joined with the Evangelical and Reformed Churches. It has a congregational form of government and has proved very welcoming to people coming from other religious traditions.

Here's wishing you success in your spiritual journey!

[ProjectE]

Vintage 21 has a Downtown Durham campus.

Vintage21 Church

[monkee1980]

Hi all, thanks very much for the recommendations! My wife and I now have a list of several churches to check out based on your suggestions and further research.