Church Search Recon

This weekend over brunch I was talking with my girlfriends about the Swans' upcoming Church Search.  As these are my friends and I know they're not judging me, I got in to some detail about my worries and hopes for the Church Search.  I then continued my discussions with my mom and sister-in-law last night.  One of the things that was brought up was what type of churches we were going to look at - are we just sticking to Christian churches?  And my initial response (though I haven't talked to Mr. Cob about this), is no.  Although, I do think we'll end up at a Christian church of some sort, I'd like to explore lots of options.  

But this lead to the big underlying issue that I have with churches in general: I'm not sure how I would categorize my religious beliefs.  Specifically, I'm not sure I would call myself a Christian.  Sure I celebrate Easter and Christmas, but that alone does not make one a Christian.  My problem is that I know the "gist" of Christianity, but not much more.  I can't really explain the core concepts of Christianity aside from knowing that Christians accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.  And I'm not even sure exactly what that means.  He died for my sins?  That's not an explanation - I need more substance and understanding.  I clearly have much to learn.

So one of my friends suggested I do some background reading before beginning my Church Search.  I think her exact suggestion was to read Christianity for Dummies.  I thought it was a good idea, and didn't realize there's actually a book with said title!  I took Religion 101 in college, which examined Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Unfortunately I no longer have the text book (I'm sure I sold it back for beer money) and I don't recall what we discussed.  But, I perused our home library last night in hopes that Mr. Cob had some book that might help, and sure enough he did.  So I started reading  Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity by Gregory and Edward Boyd (which after opening the front cover, I realized actually belongs to LaVidaLeipprandt!  I'll have to return it when I'm done...I think Mr. Cob took it sometime in high school - over ten years ago!)  So far it's an interesting read and is expanding my knowledge of Christianity.  Yesterday I was also given the book Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine, an Autobiography by religious scholar Huston Smith. 

So in addition to my 30 books challenge, I'm adding some religious reading to my plate.  Anyone have any good religion books you'd recommend?  I'd like to read some non-Christian books as well - at least one on Buddhism.

But even though I'm not up to par on my religious background reading, we're still starting the Church Search this Sunday.  Our destination is yet to be determined.  Stay tuned.