Oh sure! I never got the idea evangelical churches (or any churches) were supposed to be providing community. Maybe an alternative one outside and opposed to the default and normal ones I wanted to be in. Different story later, maybe a 90s thing, maybe a young parents thing тАФ social organizations of any kind and very often churches are looking for you if you fit this profile. We did do that for a time with post white flight urban churches that were trying to actually deal with the apartheid reality of the city. It was good in many ways, but the churches were not the community and still could not truly open to it. That scene seemed stuck in selling out or suffering for standing up to long money greased gun arm of the state.
I feel like you can have had a bad experience (I definitely did) and also maintain the hope of the type of community that they promised us?
Oh sure! I never got the idea evangelical churches (or any churches) were supposed to be providing community. Maybe an alternative one outside and opposed to the default and normal ones I wanted to be in. Different story later, maybe a 90s thing, maybe a young parents thing тАФ social organizations of any kind and very often churches are looking for you if you fit this profile. We did do that for a time with post white flight urban churches that were trying to actually deal with the apartheid reality of the city. It was good in many ways, but the churches were not the community and still could not truly open to it. That scene seemed stuck in selling out or suffering for standing up to long money greased gun arm of the state.