It was 5 years ago that I started looking for a new church.  Little did I know that this search would lead my to leave my Southern Baptist roots and find myself at home in The Anglican Church.  My marriage of 25.5 yr ended 5 yrs ago.  One of the biggest issues in the marriage to me was our lack of a church home and lack of us practicing our faith.  I was baptist, she was pentecostal.  

I came back to the teachings and church if my youth.  Sadly time had changed the church, but not me.  Hymns sang by a choir were replaced by praise teams singing pop style music.  Bibles and hymnals  replaced with plasm TV's. Prayers before worship gone, replaced with joking and talk of college football.

The worst part was the sermons had become a friendly talk. The might sermons that the congrants listened to every word as if John Wesley or DL Mood spoke had been lost. Now the message was more of a Dr Phil type message.  The sermons and the preaching of the Word of God was why I came. I wanted to feel as I was in the presents of the All Mighty.  What I had attended felt more like a pep rally.

About a 9 months ago I started looking in the Episcopal / Anglican church.  My first Sunday I walked into a High Church service and with no opinions. Whatever happens, happens.  To be quite honest I did not know what was going on, but I knew that I had found my way.  At 60 yrs old I went to my first Ash Wednesday service.  I loved it.  This is my first Lent.  Thanks be to God.

Has anyone else left the Evangelical church?

I'm glad you found where you feel you belong.   If you are closer to God, that is your place to be.
Many churches have gone more "contemporary".  IMO, it's not necessarily the denomination, but the
individual churches.  Many churches are getting farther away from God.  Be weary of false prophets.

Many traditional and contemporary denominations are walking away from the faith. It isn’t the exclusive province of one or another.

Wife is from Ireland.  Contemporary services are called ‘happy clappy”.

She’s not interested unless the mass is in Latin.

That’s a good phrase.  I refer to them as ‘electric guitar church.’

Evangelical church has lost another customer.

Seriously though, was this all at the same church or did you try different evangelical churches?

Evangelical can range from “King James only Bibles and women must wear dresses” to “shorts and tee shirts are fine and read the Bible on your phone”.

I’ve gotten disillusioned at certain churches before but I’m Evangelical to my core.

O.P. I hope you find a place that feeds your soul.

Wife and I walked away from the Mormon Church about 4 months ago. I go to Catholic Mass every day and also go to the Protestant church with my wife and kids. I've been going to Mass for about 3 weeks now and this was my first Ash Wdnesday and Lent as well. Wife will come around eventually but she's happy where she is for now. I found home as well, Glory to God.

As someone who recently (within the last year) has found the Mormon church, do you mind sharing what it is about the church that you weren't getting but are getting at a Catholic church?

Thank you.

I left evangelicalism for Anglicanism about 3 years ago now. It was a long journey as I had very deep roots in Evangelicalism, my father was/ is an ordained minister, with an MDIV from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, who spent his life faithfully serving Christ in a parachurch organization devoted to introducing college students to Jesus Christ. I am truly grateful for the love of Christ that my parents imparted to me from a very early age.

My journey to one of the historic branches of Christianity really started when I started reading the early church fathers (I didn't realize we had extant writings from them) about 10 years ago. The church fathers were describing a Christianity that seemed a lot more like Catholicism on some key points of difference with evangelicalism (mind you they didn't sound exactly like modern Roman Catholics) but there were things like the Eucharist truly being the body and blood of Christ, water baptism actually cleansing from sin, the authority and succession of the Bishop, etc... at the same time I found myself growing more jaded with non-denominational, its just me my Bible and Jesus (and the senior pastor who was basically a celebrity). My wife and I had seen a couple of hurtful church incidences involving senior pastors not acting as wise shepherds.  I was less involved with serving in ways like leading prayer gatherings or Bible studies, I felt a growing distance from God, as the primary way I had been taught to worship him was through signing along to pop music, listening to sermons, and mustering up the will to pray and read my Bible in daily devotionals. (Which are by the way still in my estimations still valid and in the case of the latter 3 important ways to commune with God)

I investigated Catholicism closely, and gained tremendous respect for it, but couldn't become Catholic because there are some modern dogmas I cannot in good conscience ascribe to. I investigated Orthodoxy and also found some issues that would keep me from moving in that direction also. I didn't give Anglicanism much thought as my ill-informed presumption was that they had just started up shop in 1500ish when Henry VIII wanted a divorce. Mostly I despaired as I wasn't sure my wife and I could join any historic communion in good conscience.

Fortunately we went to a local traditional Episcopal Christmas Eve service completely by chance (or providential grace) because it was 15 minutes closer to our house than the evangelical church we had been going to and we wanted to worship on Christmas Eve.  I was blown away by the liturgy, the amount of scripture reading, the confession of sin and absolution, and during the Eucharist kneeling at the rail when the Priest said, "The Body of Christ" I knew for certain it truly was.  We went back once or twice not finding some of the more sparsely attended  by a very elderly crowd regular Sunday masses quite as inviting a place to bring our young family.  Then covid hit and we didn't really go to church for about a year. When we rengaged we found the church also had a more contemporary service filled with younger families and couples as well as the older crowd.  (still liturgical and traditional in worship, except there's a guitar often and  songs written in the past 50 years peppered in with ancient hymns, and the liturgy is on a screen)  i was definitely concerned theologically about some of the Heresies the Episcopal church writ large has embraced, so are our priests, please pray for repentance and cleansing of the leadership of the EC. But I detected none of the theological confusion I was most concerned about. Don't get me wrong by no means is even traditional Anglicanism a perfect expression of the faith handed down by the Apostles, but it checked most of the major boxes I didn't see in Evangelicalism that I saw in the writings of the Church Fathers and then in the Bible with eyes newly opened to read. I do wish the deutorcanonical books write m were in the pew bibles and read from in the lectionary.

We engaged in the parish, and a few years later my spiritual life is healthier than it had been in a full decade. The sacraments and the words of the Book of Common Prayer have been like a warm spring breeze blowing through my soul after a long winter.  My marriage and family are also healthier. My children including a 1 year old were baptized this past spring, thanks be to God! I just couldn't keep trying to make the me and my Bible and Jesus... that's it... evangelical approach work any more and I'm so grateful that God called me into Anglicanism at least at this juncture in life.  

Thanks for letting me share my story here.

You do realize that they're Anglican / Episcopal Church is just Catholic light, right it didn't exist until Henry the 8th told the pope to screw off when he wanted a divorce

Are you attending an Anglican Church that is affiliated with the bishops in Africa and South America, or is it in communion with the Anglican Church in England?

The Church of England existed long before Henry the 8th. Depending on how you measure it out goes back at least to Augustine of Canterbury, though there were already bishops in place, as he met with them in a synod to decide some issues. There were a couple recorded as  attending the council of Nicea. It was referred to even in the Magna Carta as the Ecclesia Anglicana. It even had its own rite in the Sarum Rite (multiple rites at different times in fact)  

Be that as it may, the Church of England recognized papal authority until Henry the 8th, when it rejected the Bishop of Rome's jurisdiction over it. In the beginning Christ and the apostles founded the Church. Over time it has sadly splintered several times. Some of the splinters, like Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Roman Catholic are thought of as legitimately in the line of apostolic succession, though sadly not in communion with one another. In my view the Anglican church is one such branch and therefore catholic, just not Roman Catholic. However, as you well know there are some significant differences in dogma between the RCC and the Anglican communion, and in this way it is not simply Roman Catholicism lite, sans the pope.

I take great comfort in this fact that my parish is part of the catholic church, in the line of apostolic succession, and pray for a day when communion would be restored between the Anglican church and the Orthodox churches and Roman Catholic Church, it is not good that the church be divided.

Assuming OP attends an Episcopal parish (as I do) his province is actually in communion with the COE. However, I think in many ways the continuing Anglican/GAFCON movement represented by the ACNA and a couple other Anglo-Cattholic provinces in the US, have valid Bishops/orders, are in the apostolic succession, and do a much better job of retaining their orthodoxy than does the CoE itself. But in my case I can't pick which faithful, traditional, Anglican parish is 5 minutes from my home. The global Anglican communion, starting with the CoE is certainly in need of reform, and has sadly splintered into yet more branches.

I will send you a DM so I don't derail the thread.

@MolonLabeFBHO

DM sent also.

Be the masculine pious light in their life and they'll come around to the fullness of Christ with you, on their time of course, we all have different paths.

Deo Gratias!

"Evangelical" is a broad term these days.
MANY main-steam denominational churches (evangelical or otherwise) have gone so far to the left both politically and theologically they can't even legitimately be called Christian.  
I've never been part of a church that wouldn't be considered evangelical.
Most "evangelical" bible churches these days are very consumer oriented.
Cookie cutter service structure, music and audio visual instead of hymns and bibles.
I actually take my Bible (large print ha ha) to church and make a point to open it and be ready to take notes.  
Deal breakers for me:
speaking in tongues, women in the pulpit, any form of the prosperity gospel, emotionally charged worship.  
Things I have learned to tolerate:
Electric guitar based "contemporary Christian" music and using music to set the "mood" for worship, people waving cell phones when asked who has their bible.  
Bottom line is no church is perfect or even close to it.      
Today I would like to find a church that would be in-line with more puritanical beliefs.
Literalism in the interpretation of scripture.
Calling sin what it is regardless of cultural acceptability.
Accepting that the only way to bridge the gap between Gods just love and the sin nature we are born into is Jesus Christ crucified.
Emphasis on sanctification while accepting we can't be perfect no matter how hard we try.
The "best" music I've experienced in 50 something years of Church services was a one- man worship team lead by a 20 something guy who was an average singer and an average acoustic guitar player playing a mix of contemporary songs and old-time hymns.

There’s very few Bible teaching churches around anymore. I spend time reading the Bible and studying.  Few preachers actually know the Bible, or else it doesn’t shine through.  They have led many astray and they’ll pay for it.

Good to you see post again, sir.

In the context of a different conversation I was discussing this very point with my father, a seminary educated ordained evangelical ministry leader, this afternoon. He had to pinch hit at preaching for the pastor of his church this past Sunday on relatively short notice when the pastor became ill. My dad was talking about how relatively tough it was to pull together a sermon from scratch with only one day's notice, so I was asking him about the length of time evangelical pastors spend weekly preparing their remarks and he thought somewhere between 8 to 12 hours is the median for evangelical sermon prep.

However then he said, you know that's actually changing quite a bit as there is a growing trend among evangelical pastors to not be seminary trained. Therefore many do not have the same degree of training on exegetical/hermeneutical techniques used to parse a passage of scripture in for a sermon. These lesser trained evangelical pastors still deliver a Bible message, just with less scholarly rigor than perhaps they were doing 40 years ago when almost all of them had significant training from a seminary. This rings true from a couple of the non- denominational churches I attended over the past 15 years where when I asked the pastor where he went to seminary, the pastor replied something along the lines of "I don't need a degree, I graduated from the seminary of hard knocks." This sentiment might be technically true, the early church only had a few catechetical schools and certainly all the early presbyters and bishops didn't have the opportunity to attend, however when the entire basis for a church or denominations theological truth is the pastors personal conviction on the meaning of the Bible, it certainly would seem that some graduate level study/ training should be in order.

That's why traditional orthodox catholic Christianity has such a vastly superior theological framework, because yes we have inerrant scripture, but we're not solely relying on the interpretation of an individual priest, we also have Holy Tradition, the councils, the Father's, the liturgy, the saints to lean on. Further the prominence of the reading of scripture and the prayers during the liturgy of the word, and the liturgy of the table during worship means if the priest has a mediocre homily worship is still biblical and very meaningful.

James 3:1

Taming the Tongue

[1] Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

I view that as a very stern warning, it’s good to desire to teach but that is something to be approached with respect and careful, honest examination of oneself.

Red Letter Christianity, or, it's form, have become a curse.

No denomination, each minister is " Going for a Joel "

So ... evangelical is not limited to just those denoms. The word has been used of so many things that it has almost become meaningless.  IMO, the meaningful use of it as a label for a church is "this place shares the gospel clearly and regularly

(you are wrong with God, Jesus, God incarnate, fully man, fully God came and lived the perfect life we couldn't and died, and all who believe he died in their place and for their wrongs are saved)

and the church has the meaning of the text of the bible as it's functioning ultimate authority"

We tend to apply that to whole denominations, but realistically, it goes church by church. All you can do is to go a given church and see if they are that or not.

---------------------------------------

Hymn singing and overhead projection and TVs with text ... I feel you there.

Beware, the smells and bells and liturgy can be a mask over a dead core and messed up belief just as much as a worship band and smoke machines.

Worship wise, I tend to judge a place based on things like "Could I sing this worship song to my girlfriend and it wouldn't be blasphemy?"   (if so, run, don't walk away).  The kind of God you worship determines how you worship him. If the worship is bubbly light and flippant ... something's wrong. It doesn't have to be all contrition and lamentation, there's real joy... but I think you get my point.

The real biggie though is ... well, again, what's their ultimate authority. If it's not the meaning of the text of the bible ... don't run away. Strap a jato pack on and exit faster than wil e cotyote chasing the roadrunner.

I left the evangelical church after Covid. It had not been feeding my soul for some time but I was an usher and part of the security team so I just kept going. I’m not going into the reasons why as it doesn’t matter to this thread.

I have been attending an Orthodox Church for a year or so.  It is feeding my soul.

I am considering becoming a catechumen.

I will say thatnthe culture creep is infecting almost every denomination at the moment .
Very few groups of Christians aren't wrestling with heresy and apathy right now.

I've never been quite clear what "Evangelical" really ever encompassed in modern parlance.  My upbringing in the faith had checked out of the evolution of church history at the Book of Concord.

To me, few churches feel like an ambassadorial outpost of the kingdom of Jesus, where members of that kingdom meet to work together on their effort to teach all nations and support each other daily in following Jesus commands.

Good to hear! My parish must welcomed an entire family this weekend. Father was chrismated. Wife (pregnant) and three kids were baptized and chrismated.

I had thought the term was applied to "low" Protestant denominations (SBC, Assembly of God, Church of God, etc.) and not to the more streamline denominations (UMC, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, etc.), but if you look at any of hundred sources to determine who is "evangelical" and who is not, a lot of them will disagree with each other. And the standards to be considered "evangelical" are likewise flexible.

To me the term is meaningless, and based on who is using it, it is either a pejorative or a humble brag.

Good luck OP.  I grew up in an Episcopal church that was Pentecostal.

All the smells & bells with half the guilt!

Wherever 4 Anglicans are gathered together there is a fifth.

I have left a modern evangelical church for a high church with the ACNA.

No regrets.

Also, I won't be caught dead attending a TEC parish unless I'm there to bring them God's Word.

sorry to hear that op. the southern baptist convention has ruined baptist churches across the country in recent decades. thats why its important to be independent but more importantly fundamental about following the Bible to the letter.

unfortunately the fallen away baptist church and the pentecostals pushed you right into the lap of a more mild off shoot of the catholic universal mega church.

i was raised that way bouncing around denominations and rejected all religion until my life came crashing down and i heard a sermon online proving only from scripture that i actually wasnt saved yet because salvation is a one time event. only then did i find out. i had never even heard of that and was sent to a Christian school against my will. no one bothered to explain it as it was the dr. phil type sermons with almost no Bible scripture used unless part of an opening statement or two.

please give this a look if you ever find yourself questioning your salvation. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=pastor+roger+jimenez+bible+way+to+heaven#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7ae9e11f,vid:i8HuErilQm0,st:0

I left what appears to have been an Evangelical church in the Sixties when I hit puberty.  I came back to the faith in my sixties when reading through the Bible for the first time.  None of the church services I have attended since then have resonated with me enough to become a member.  The contemporary gospel music I hear on the radio today does not move me like the old hymns, but that does not appear to be the deal breaker.  So far I've been content to starting each day with the reading and study of God's Word - both the Old and New testaments.  I know others feel differently and am o.k. with that.  

The only experience I have is leaving the Roman Catholic Church after it came out that US Bishops were complicit in moving pedofile priests from parish to parish to protect them from the law, then the pope did the same thing with Cardinal Law and I realized it was completely systemic and suddenly it was time for forgiveness instead of putting these fucks on trial.

And I never went back.

We went to UU for a while but they are not a church, they are a social club that believes in nothing and were woke before woke was a word. My time was better spent drinking than being there.

Salvation is the Blood Of Jesus Christ and him Crucified
On the Cross
John 3-16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Go out and tell the Gospel of Jesus Christ and forget about denominations and sects

This is really long but covers a LOT of areas of the RCC  that show how far off that system really is. It's a really good listen if you have the time.

The Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Anglicans are quite fond of their drink.  Attended a Lutheran mission that was meeting in a bar for some time before they went full woke.