Why do Protestants and evangelicals choose their specific church or denomination to the exclusion of others?

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Doctrine. Specifically, Word and Sacrament
Baptismal regeneration
Real presence.
Confession and Holy Absolution
 
I echo @Welshrabbit . As families from city to city, or neighborhood to neighborhood, traveling distance is a factor. We changed from my then-husband’s church to my family church because of the children’s programs and nurseries. In the end, it didn’t work out but that’s another story as I am now Catholic. I find it very surprising that many do not consider or even know the theology of the church they attend. Some of the non-denoms can be very vague.
 
Living in the Bible Belt, a lot of the Protestants I know choose their specific church… until they don’t like it anymore. And then maybe a Baptist relocates to the Lutheran church, or a Presbyterian tries out the Methodists, or whatever. And when they find somewhere they like, they stick around… until they don’t like that anymore, either. In practice, they’re pretty interchangeable… my Methodist MIL didn’t have a problem being with the Baptists for a few years, and it’s not like they debated immersion-only baptism (Baptists) vs immersion/sprinkling/pouring (Methodists) as a dealbreaker. Pretty much the only Christian church they won’t consider exploring is popping over to the Catholic church and seeing what’s up there, because, you know, those Catholics… 😉

If I recall, she left one church because the preacher she liked moved on to another town, and she didn’t care for his replacement. Then she went on to her next church, where she stayed for a bit, but ultimately left because the preacher had an affair and got a divorce, and she didn’t think a guy like that had any business being in the pulpit preaching at her about how to live God’s word. The one she moved to had a good Bible study-- she skipped the church service part of things half the time, but she never missed Bible study. She never really went into details on why she left that one, but I do remember she had a strong disagreement with some of her Bible study classmates over something, and was seriously offended by something personal. She’s currently going to a different church, but doesn’t talk much about it.

Seeing that we live in a teeny town with less than 10 options for church… she’s running out of places to call home.
 
As a Protestant, it would be wrong for me to choose a church by your own preferences. A church is a communion of the saints. And God command His people to gather in His name every Sabbath day. I am a Baptist, but I attend a Presbyterian church because it preach the Gospel.

But I would say to level the charge only against Protestants is quiet inaccurate. Did Tim Staples leave an RC because of his distaste with his church practice of “the wave movement”?
 
Dlee said:
I find it very surprising that many do not consider or even know the theology of the church they attend. Some of the non-denoms can be very vague.
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Some churches adopt that as a deliberate policy. Edwin Hatch, best remembered today as the main author of the Hatch-Redpath concordance to the Septuagint, once said something like that in a sermon. Taking as his text Gal 6:15, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature”, Hatch preached a sermon in 1876 that was later published under the title, “The Place of Controversy in Christian Life” (link below). I suspect that in this paragraph he may have given away more than he intended to about the aims and motivation of the Broad Church faction within the Church of England.

The one absolutely necessary thing to us as Christians — to us as children of God into whom the spirit of God is breathed — is not that we should be technically right in this or that practice, not that we should be theoretically right in this or that doctrine, but that we should be “new creatures”; that we should have risen above the lower, earthly, brutish part of us, the sensual, degrading, animal impulses, into a better and higher life, to a nobler and holier creed, to a diviner and more spiritual temper. The one paramount precept of the Christian religion and of all religion, is – Be better than you have been: be purer, be braver, be sincerer, be truer, be kinder, be less of the animal and more of the man, have less of the old Adam and more of the new – be, in short, “new creatures.”

 
Yeah, I’ve read quite a bit of Protestant confessions when I was studying the Reformation, but when I’m checking out churches in the city, the pastor doesn’t even understand what I’m talking about when I ask about something related to confessions. I know some practice closed communion, but for the most part, people really just care more about fellowship and worship than the specific theology of who they’re worshiping with. I’d imagine there’s less reason to be concerned about this if you aren’t Catholic/Orthodox, but hell, I’m sure many Catholics also don’t really care all that much about theology, even though they’re still more likely to attend the church of their respective denomination.
 
Phill said:
I wouldn’t want to just show up and hide in the back one day a week.
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This is protestant favorite that catches and holds the haughty.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.

Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.

The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.

But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

 
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https://songs-tube.net/152477-Ray Boltz-Church Hop.html

Listen to it if you have time! Fun and so true! My husband and I are former Evangelical Protestants, and we did the Church Hop!

Sadly, Ray Boltz decided to leave the church because he came out as gay, found no acceptance among Christians, and so he re-located in a city where he lives in the gay community.
 
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I remember when I was catechized by my pastor before my baptism, we would often talk about the more theoretical theology. The young girls who were there with me didn’t really care. All they needed to know was the basic instructions: Pray, seek God’s grace, genuinely try not to sin, respect the sacraments. 90% of Christians are like that. We don’t need the confessions every day, they’re here to help us if we struggle with the intellectual part of faith. For most people, their ordinary struggles against venial sins are demanding enough.
 
midori said:
And then maybe a Baptist relocates to the Lutheran church, or a Presbyterian tries out the Methodists, or whatever.
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For a Baptist to relocate to a Lutheran church would be a monumental step, indeed. The differences in worship alone are beyond significant. The views of the sacraments are diametrically opposite.

In some ways, there is a more significant divide between liturgical/ sacramental non-Catholic traditions and other Protestant traditions than there is between the former and Catholicism.
 
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That is true but seemingly not in all cases. In my community, there are two Lutheran churches who have started up in the last 15 to 20 years whose style and worship procedures have eliminated most liturgical practices and have taken on a more Evangelical flavor. They seem to have won over those individuals who were “conservative” in their approach to living a Christian life. Other than for infant baptism, Baptists could feel at home there. The three old original Lutheran congregations, divided as Norwegian, Swedish and German are struggling to keep the staus quo. Some stalwarts refer to the newer Lutheran congregations as “not real Lutherans!” Some who have lived a lifetime in one of the three traditional churches who now go to the newer ones claim they finally have a church life that is alive, vibrant and meaningful. 🤔
 
My late aunt always said that all Christian churches are good; we are all worshiping the same God. So she went to whatever one she lived closest to.
 
Wannano said:
That is true but seemingly not in all cases. In my community, there are two Lutheran churches who have started up in the last 15 to 20 years whose style and worship procedures have eliminated most liturgical practices and have taken on a more Evangelical flavor.
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Meaning no disrespect to American evangelicals, I find that sad. The Lutheran mass is so beautiful and inspiring.
Wannano said:
Other than for infant baptism, Baptists could feel at home there.
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And the doctrine of the real presence, Confession and Holy Absolution, both corporate and private?
The three ecumenical creeds?
Wannano said:
Some stalwarts refer to the newer Lutheran congregations as “not real Lutherans!”
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I wouldn’t say that. If worship includes invocation, Holy Absolution, the word (scripture reading), homily, the sacrament, it contains the basics of Lutheran worship. It isn’t Lutheran if they step away from the Confessions.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
And I am really interested to know whether any of these churches regard themselves as “the one true church”, and if so, why?
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I’ve found there are individual congregations that think or believe this way (Baptist, Pentecostal, especially the Campbellite Churches of Christ), but it’s usually not across-the-board as a whole for the denomination. In Evangelical Protestantism, denomination is more a general guideline and the individual congregation is in charge of their own doctrine/theology for the most part.

I’ve even seen churches switch denominations when the congregation votes to do so to better align with their beliefs. One went from American Baptist to Southern Baptist over finances and support resources (nothing remotely theological), and a couple others have gone from Methodist or Pentecostal to just an independent neighborhood church or something like that.

The Southern Baptist Convention offers their member congregations the most leeway, so you find a lot of those. There are a couple churches near me that have dual membership in the SBC and another denomination, for example (like United Church of Christ).
 
Cor_ad_Cor said:
There are a couple churches near me that have dual membership in the SBC and another denomination, for example (like United Church of Christ).
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This is very interesting, and possibly fodder for a new thread — “are there any non-Catholic Christian congregations that belong to more than one denomination simultaneously?”.
 
Those protestants are in many ways just like their Catholic counterparts. They think exclusively about something that has a ceiling on it. The ceiling is all about the founders to the organization. If God’s ministry surpasses the denominational-ceiling of what God wants to do in any given Church organization, those in the organization can only say, “that is not of God! Our group’s perspective alone has the truth. They are outsiders.”
 
JonNC said:
For a Baptist to relocate to a Lutheran church would be a monumental step, indeed. The differences in worship alone are beyond significant. The views of the sacraments are diametrically opposite.

In some ways, there is a more significant divide between liturgical/ sacramental non-Catholic traditions and other Protestant traditions than there is between the former and Catholicism.
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I don’t know. I’m just giving an anecdote from my town.

The local Lutheran church has two female ministers, one with kids, one unspecified. One of them enjoys “writing liturgy and creating stations and rituals to connect with God…” One has a BA in American Studies and an MA in Media Theory and went to Seminary. The other one doesn’t mention her educational background. The website has a big emphasis on being a LGBTQ-friendly community.

They start off with 5 minutes’ worth of gathering music, and move on to Bible readings, sermon, hymns, choir anthems, and Communion. It’s possible they do Communion more frequently than the Baptists do— but they definitely have more in common with the Baptists than they do the Catholics, even if the Lutherans perceive communion as a sacrament and the Baptists perceive communion as a commemorative meal, and they may have differences of opinion regarding grace as a gift vs active choice. Whereas the Lutherans disagree with the Catholics on the authority of Scripture (Scripture alone has the authority to determine doctrine); justification issues; the authority of the Pope; the number of the Sacraments; the nature of the Sacraments (including a rejection of transubstantiation while embracing the concept of the Real Presence); the roles of Mary and the Saints; a rejection of Purgatory; and so on.
 
Cor_ad_Cor said:
The Southern Baptist Convention offers their member congregations the most leeway, so you find a lot of those. There are a couple churches near me that have dual membership in the SBC and another denomination, for example (like United Church of Christ).
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As someone who has spent the majority of my life worshiping in Southern Baptist Churches I find that shocking. In my area if a SBC said they were part of another denomination they would be removed from the local association and would lose the ability to vote and get resources from the state and national convention.

Now there are a few SBC in my area that are part of the acts 29 network.. But the Acts 29 network is not a denomination. It is a mission organization that helps churches plant new churches.
 
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