I am struggling with where to have my family attend church- essentially deciding between two churches.
As background- my husband, my toddler son and I moved to a new area of our state last year. When we were living in our previous city, we were not regularly attending church for a number of reasons, though my husband and I have been Christians for all of our adult life. In our new city, a neighbor of ours encouraged me to attend a Christian mothers group with her, and I loved it. I got heavily involved with the organization, was asked to become one of the leaders in the group and started attending church where the group is held. I really connected with the style and message of the pastor at that church, so much so that I listen to his previous sermons as I do household chores, etc. My son loves their Sunday school program (as far as we can tell... he's 3 now lol), and my husband also likes attending.
Sounds great, however, I feel like we have stalled a bit. The women who attend that church (and who I know through the mom's organization) are not extremely welcoming and inviting. I've tried to break into that "inner circle" with not a ton of luck. Super sweet, but they just don't include me on things outside of our organization activities. I feel like as a result, my husband has been unable to get plugged into the church. Basically, he is a Christian, will attend church with me, raise our children (we have since had a second child) in the faith, but is not comfortable attending a men's group or small group due to his extremely introvert nature. So, I have casual friendships through the organization, we attend church on Sundays, but we aren't really establishing fellowship bonds there.
Another woman I know through the mother's group unprompted encouraged me to try her church for one Sunday (my neighbor who initially invited me to the group also attends this other church). I listened to some past sermons online... and was not... moved? But I told myself I am not in the position to judge the pastor or the message, to just take it as a pathway to God. We hesitantly went this last Sunday. My son did great in the Sunday school (and as an aside, he will be attending preschool at this church next year, once again, for a myriad of reasons). And when we were leaving church, we were immediately invited to join a group of young families who were hanging out and catching up outside the church. As we all stood around chatting, everyone decided to meet up later that evening for a park playdate and dinner. It was awesome! My son played with other kids, my husband had some great chats with fellow men of God (first time in a LONG time), some of the ladies helped me with my infant son. We laughed, had fun. It was exhilarating.
But still, the message and style of the pastor did not connect with us. I'm trying not to get into too many specifics so I don't get into a space where I am critiquing the pastor, it was just a stark difference from the encounter with God we experience through how the other pastor relays the word of God.
What should we do? Is there any scripture that could help me discern God's direction for us? I have been praying about it for a while, and I still don't feel like I have a clear path for us. I am so confused and lost.
I'm sorry this was so long. Thank you for anyone who read through it