Christian Liberals & Progressive People of Faith

I grew up ELCA Lutheran. My pastor retired while I was at college, (Luther college, can't get much more lutheran). However when I went back after college, I found it boring. My martial arts instructors were a pastor and his wife of AoG. My wife and I were getting ready to be married and didn't have a church so we started going there. Fun, upbeat music, fairly relaxed. But you really have to listen to the people and the pastor.

We started going to the AoG church where we lived (instructor was an hour away). The old pastor said something that is one foundation stone of my belief: "You cannot scare someone into the kingdom of heaven." And just recently the pastor gave a sermon on the "Basics of Christianity" which boiled down to "Love God, Love Others." There was also a recent sermon on the destruction of Sodom. God destroyed Sodom because they had truly turned away from him - and became violent, greedy, and had no respect for the law. Sodomites raped everyone. They were violent animals, not just homosexual as some want to believe.

There are some in the church who are quite right leaning, but they're older. There are quite a few younger people sporting visible tattoos.

I'd check out how many younger people are in the church as well. Just make sure the tone of the sermons agrees with what your view of Christianity is.