The church tag-line is, "Wherever you are on life's journey, you are welcome here." It's true -- everyone is welcome.
Sometimes I am puzzled by the phrase "church shopping" -- a bummer to think that people are making decisions about attending church based on what the sanctuary looks like or if they have donuts after the worship service, etc. Seems like you ought to find out what the church believes and decide if that agrees with your beliefs. I guess if you're not sure what you believe, then it's helpful/necessary to move around finding out what various churches believe to see the similarities and differences.
So this church believes that God loves all regardless of any identifying factor you can think of. They believe that God and Jesus figured out the rules to live by, and they do not believe that any person on earth needs to add their own layers of rules. They believe that a message of inspiration and hope is what people need -- who wants to go to church if it makes you feel guilty or sad? How would that make the world a better place to have a bunch of guilty or sad people walking around? Communion is once a month and they welcome all who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior to participate in communion if they choose - and if you don't want to participate, you don't have to explain it to anyone and you won't stick out. No biggie.
If you have a different belief system, then you will want to keep looking -- it doesn't make this a bad church, it's just not the right fit for you.
This is one of many UCC churches in St. Louis -- the theology should be the same at all of them, but each congregation has it's own personality. St. Philip's has friendly people, lots of service activities, Sunday School for kids every week, periodic bible study for adults, and several social groups for various ages. Not a mega-church... the regulars know who the regulars are, and they make it a point to welcome visitors in a non-pushy way. read more