We've been coming here for their VBX and our girls love the environment and the number of kids at…read moretheir age is a plus. The members and church staff are super friendly and welcoming. We love that they are gracefully ask for parent involvement with members of the church to help in different capacity. The time spent here is well worth it for the amount of kids program they have available throughout the year. They have a contemporary and traditional services on Sunday at 9am and 10:30 which is family friendly. They have kids Wednesday night workship for kids called KWAM. They have 3 different service times for Christmas Eve workship that are family friendly at 3 and 4pm and then a candlelight at 9pm. Definitely recommend checking them out.

This is a wonderful faith based church featuring loving meaningful outreach to the community. You…read morewill be greeted by smiling faces wanting to meet and know you. They support community with meals vine & branches clothing help preschool besides regular church activities. Come join us for services and find out.

Many churches these days say "all are welcome" but not so many actually practice it. Grace Lutheran…read morewelcomes every person who comes through the door with open arms. The only Reconciling in Christ Church south of the river, I honestly can't imagine going anywhere else. Moreover, Grace focuses on social outreach and justice, as well as inter-faith dialogue, which are critical to a healthy church. I can't imagine a better place and I'm proud to be raising my children in this community.

A place of hope,love and faith. Many call themselves Christians but insist on their ideas and…read morerefuse to allow the Spirit to reveal the sacred scriptures to them. Grace listens to the Spirit in the sacred, the secular and the ordinary and therefore offers sanctuary,love and hope to a hurting community. It is my happy place and gives me hope that Christ indeed does live.

GCBC is a great church. It is a smaller and more intimate church where you can know your pastors…read moreand other church members. Expository preaching, doctrinally aware, welcoming and caring. Lots of young families. They teach and preach the Bible as the foundation to all of life. The music is a mix of modern worship and old hymns. You will find also a mix of dress style, from a suit and tie and dresses to jeans and a t-shirt. What one wears is not important, it is about teaching and learning from the Word. Nursery is provided to kids up to around 3 years old during the service which means there are a lot of kids in the church service worshiping together with the people of God. There is age appropriate Sunday school provided for kids of all ages after the service. This is a 5 star church family. Biblical, loving and solid on the gospel. Sadly there is a one star review. It is an unhelpful review and does not really reflect the church. I have been a member of GCBC since 2011 and could not recommend the church enough. Also perhaps check out also the reviews which are not recommended.

In hurtful churches you find the following seven characteristics:…read more 1. Power-posturing. Those in leadership positions spend a lot of time and energy reminding others of their authority. Authority is used to boss and control members of God's family. 2. Performance preoccupation. How people act is more important than what's really going on in their lives. People aren't what is loved and accepted. Behavior is the most important thing. 3. Unspoken rules. How relationships function is governed by rules that aren't said out loud, but in many cases these unspoken rules have more weight than the out-loud rules or even Scripture. The most powerful and damaging of all the unspoken rules is the "can't talk" rule. This rule keeps the truth quiet because the problem itself isn't treated as the problem; talking about it is treated as the problem. People who notice problems and confront them are labeled divisive and disloyal. People shut up and call it unity. 4. Lack of balance. There are disproportionate focuses and values placed on certain areas of the Christian life. For instance, you must agree that certain gifts of the Spirit aren't for today or you're labeled "unstable" or "deceived." In other churches, if you lack certain spiritual gifts or don't exercise the gifts in ways accepted by the group, you are considered a second-class Christian. 5. Spiritual paranoia. There is a sense that people, resources, and relationships outside the system are unsafe. 6. Misplaced loyalty. A sense of loyalty is built toward programs, things, and people, rather than toward Jesus. 7. Secretiveness. Certain information is deemed suitable only for those within the church or only for certain people within the church. The above was taken from the Spiritual abuse website. GCBC exhibited almost all of these. Several years later, I get anxiety walking into a church building, dealing with church people, and trying to be apart of a church. I hope they've changed since I've left, but chances are they are still doing the same. It is telling that when I left a review on other social media pages, they take down the review or the entire page. They are all about image control. When you first go there, they'll seem like they love you with lots of attention and love bombing. But once you question anything, expect the manipulation and power posturing and narc behaviors. I could give many examples, but here's one. The church would never publish to its own members what the pastors made and specifics of where the money went. They said if you wanted a copy, to email one of the pastors. We did. Crickets. If I still went here, that would be one issue I'd bring up. Why the secrecy? Upon leaving, the only thing I got was a request to gossip about another church member. And then people who said they were my friends shunned me. Such loving pastors!! I'm glad I left. Look up narcissistic personality disorder and narcissistic supply. Fits them to a T and that's why they got their loyal cronies who think I'm being an ass. I know several families who think as I do but won't say anything. It's not just me. PS of course men love this church. They get treated like gods for having male anatomy and they get to treat their wife and kids like slaves. You do the math. And loving people should extend outside the walls of your rented church building. Smash the patriarchy.

Friendship Church has been by home church for the past 5 years and I am so grateful for a community…read moreof believers like this. Warm welcomes and hugs are a very common occurrence here. The pastors teach the word and give very solid applications to daily life. Some of their strongest ministries are to those in the community that need hope the most struggling with addiction, conflict and care. This church represents Jesus well to the Shakopee community and I love it here! I serve in the youth ministry and it is amazing to see God work in the lives of students, they really care for the whole family!

I love the warm welcoming feeling of this church. I have been a member for almost 1 year. My family…read moreall attends the services. Pastor Mark Bellows does an amazing translation from Bible to todays life experiences. If you stop in sunday 10:30 am for service you will feel very welcome and like a home feel..like pastor Mark says" I believe that there is an emptiness and woundedness in people's lives which is symbolized by the partial outline of the heart in our church logo. At Hope Community we believe that the hurting heart can be healed by the Living Hope." www.hope-cc.com

Fabric has been a meaningful community for our family for years. The kids' programming is top…read morenotch, the messages and live music are meaningful, spiritual, intentionally open-minded, yet often also challenging. Fabric is "contemporary", but it isn't meant to mirror a mega-church experience, it's about engaging in multi-week conversations with connections in the community. I'm sometimes surprised the attendance at Field School on Sunday morning doesn't approach a thousand, because it's exactly the right type of spiritual community for this century. Joining a Fabric group is encouraged but isn't mandated. Groups meet every week or whenever you can make it. Most people choose to become part of one, because it's a way to continue to engage on deeper issues together over a cup of tea or glass of beer. Groups can help us engage with each other's lives at a deeper level but also allow focus to reflect together on the current Fabric conversation. Some have critiqued Fabric, labeling it as surface level, due to a departure from traditional church doctrine and related sermons. I'd argue on the contrary, that it's far from shallow, and rather the opposite. If it is important to you to have someone tell you what you believe about God or Jesus or Creation or Heaven, down to your last thought, then Fabric isn't for you. But, most of us aren't like that. Life isn't like that. Life is about pursuing hopes and dreams, refining our values, developing family and friend relationships, and asking curious questions, which certainly involves asking questions about God and what they means for us. As such, Fabric is simply about living that life in community. Fabric isn't a Church, but Fabric IS church -- For the Rest of Us. Fabric's invitation could well be: Come for the music, stay for the conversation. All are welcome here, EVEN those who identify as Christians, and many of us do. Your faith is important to us. But that goes for everyone who gathers with us. Every person who shows up is important to us, and we are excited to meet you. We want to hear what you are excited about, and we want you in the conversation too!

Fabric Minneapolis is a church community that's made up of people with a wide range of beliefs and…read moreexperiences with church. Some folks have very traditional church backgrounds, some have been deeply harmed by the church, some are neutral about church. We have couples where one has had very positive church experiences and the other is an atheist. What we have in common is a commitment to wrestling together with the big questions of God and the messiness of life. I've been part of the Fabric community for 13 years. Before moving to Minneapolis, I attended a church in Cleveland, OH whose pastor I loved and who walked through important life events with me (e.g. he officiated our wedding, baptised our son). However, with Fabric I've really grown in my understanding of and beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Bible, AND also about being human, parenting, relationships, community. Largely this is because of the conversations that happen not only on Sundays but also with smaller groups during the week. I am connected with so many caring, authentic, curious, good people because of Fabric.

Eckankar is a beautiful and happy place to be. There's a feeling of warmth, love, peace, calm and…read morehappiness when at the Temple of ECK in Chanhassen. The temple is a sacred, holy ground. Eckankar is a spiritual teaching that teaches about love and loving all of life. It teaches that Soul's ultimate destiny is to become a co-worker with God and that Soul exists because God loves It. What I love about the ECK teachings is that each day, they bring out the best in me, helping me to be a shining light and a beacon of love to all that I meet. I'm truly grateful to have found this path back home to God.

The people were warm and inviting. The pastor greeted us before the service and talked with us…read moreafter the service. He invited us to join him for refreshments in the Great Room after the service