I agree about hopping all over the place.
Though, in spite of my aversion to such changes, God has forced me to change churches more than 5 times in the last 3 years. Wheee.
Was in only one church which emphasized Biblical relationships.
It was a house church founded by a Methodist MD and his wife who had studied under Derek Prince and a host of such characters and were Charismatic. The mental hospitals and churches from LA south ended up sending the 'bits of human garbage' as one shrink called them who all the churches and mental hospitals HAD GIVEN UP ON--sending such to this house church.
AND they put an amazing percentage of such broken creatures back together into functioning human beings.
Sadly, the thing dropped off the deep end because the leadership refused to share leadership or allow much input beyond the 2 daughters and their sons-in-law. And, one of the sons-in-law ended up scr*wing everything that wiggled in the church.
It seems that when something really powerful occurs in the Body of Christ, the enemy really works overtime trying to neutralize it.
Anyway--this church had the least amount of gossip of any church I've been in. Every member would police themselves and every other member--Either you spoke positively OR YOU HAD TO BE ACTIVELY WORKING THE RESOLVE, IMPROVE the situation you were talking about. And, they would follow up to see if you had followed through.
Also, To join the group, there was a 6 page 'searching sheet' wherein one listed all one's past sins, habits, obsessions etc. of any significance at all. Such was prayed over with a group and then one was assigned to a 'spiritual family.'
Sometimes the heavy handed control was too heavy handed. But sometimes, it was needed with some personality disorders.
The house objects--clothes etc. were also gone over and the home went through a 'spiritual house cleansing.' Idols, dark, demonic sorts of things that were not edifying etc. obsessions etc. were tossed; given away; burned etc.
In the 'spiritual families' every household had an evening on the hot-seat on a rotating basis wherein the household on the hostseat would share what had been going on since their last turn and what issues they felt they were confronting in themselves and their relationships. The group would give prayerful, discerning input and then pray accordingly. Powerful things happened routinely.
Anyway--was quite an experience. Hated to see it fall off the deep end.
LUB
"To join the group, there was a 6 page 'searching sheet' wherein one listed all one's past sins, habits, obsessions etc. of any significance at all. Such was prayed over with a group and then one was assigned to a 'spiritual family'"
This is totally unscriptural.
When I lived in California, the local church pastor had been to Florida and came back with a new twist -- he began practicing what they called "Inner Healing" where untrained lay members interviewed every member (I refused to participate) and went all the way back to their mother's womb to find all their sins and problems. It was psychology by the amateur. One young man attempted to commit suicide. It was a total misuse and abuse of the membership to subject them to such treatment.