In a time of increasing cultural pluralism and vast religious restructuring in the United States, Christian ethics must take better account of how values and commitments shape Christian communities. In pursuing this agenda, I engage theological claims about the relationship of worship and ethics into conversation with the life, worship, and work of three strong historic downtown Atlanta churches—the Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Big Bethel AME, and Central Presbyterian. I especially attend to the ways polity, race and socio-economic status, and the community’s participation in other formative institutions and cultural traditions shape the distinctive ways each church in turn articulates Christian ideals and struggles to embody them in its life. Arguing against linear and causal accounts of worship forming Christian character, my research brings into focus the complicated interaction between the particular identity of a congregation and the forms of worship and social-ethical witness possible in a congregation. Such a finding both seriously complicates and makes imperative the work of Christian ethicists and congregational members in sorting out the power and value of various social, cultural, and religious influences forming Christian churches today.