@ItalianPrincess1217 I feel the same way, that the community around church is a great thing, and I wish there was something for people who are not religionus. I’m not religious- I recently felt really uncomfortable at a dinner party when they were saying grace- but thinking about going to church kind of gives me the warm fuzzies. And they have great food. Little old church ladies make the best chicken and pie.
I grew up going to Methodist churches, and I can’t speak for all of them everywhere, but it might be worth looking into. They seem to be pretty normal about religion. My experience was that it was a smaller congregation, maybe 50 to 100 people. The building would be an old-fashioned church building with stained glass windows, wooden pews and the musty church smell. The service was an hour long, from 11 to noon, and they sang out of hymnals and read some bible passages along with the sermon. My mom was good friends with the pastor at the church when I was really little.
I’ve been to a non-denominational megachurche, and those people really seem to have a lot more religious fervor. Maybe it’s because so many of them were born-again Christians. I hear that if you’re born-again anything, you’re more enthusiastic about it. They had a lot of stuff going on, like family activities, youth groups, singles nights/ single parent nights, and charity and mission events. No matter what, if you go to something at this church you will hear Christian-themed soft rock, and they will have the words on a screen for you to follow. It had the same ambience as an office park, which was kind of weird.
The most fun I ever had at church was going to a Chinese church with one of my friends. Me and all the other kids went to school together, and none of them really wanted to be there, so it kind of devolved into a basketball game/ a poker game/ eating while the adults stood around and talked. The service was dead boring, but one of the youth leaders made a really thoughtful and passionate analysis of Jesus’s teachings, one of the best sermons I’ve heard.