“Dad is looking for a church that he likes.” That was the comment made during a recent family devotional time that cut me to the core. Immediately, I began to work to correct the misunderstanding but the depth and gravity of the conversation that took place in which this comment was made was far too important for a “Shoot from the hip” answer. Therefore, I needed time to carefully consider my answer and the following is the result of that.
Recently, my family and I moved to Mississippi to accept a new position with the organization that I serve with and this was to say the least the biggest change in our family’s life, ever. Having lived in Florida for almost 20 years most of my life was there and it’s all my children have know, therefore, the change was major. My wife and I knew that this would be the case and did what we could to prepare to smooth out some of the rough waters that we were certain would soon come. One of the major things that we worked on was trying to learn as much as we could about the churches in the area prior to coming as finding a new church home would be a first order of business. However, having never done something like this before, looking for a church home in an area we know nothing about, I found that despite my efforts I was ill prepared and I made a bad decision. This coupled with the ensuing conversation prompted me to more carefully think through the question of finding the “Right Church.”
My I preface the following comments by saying that anyone who is looking for the perfect church will search in vain as it does not exist here on earth. People make up the local body of believers and while “The Church” is made up only of true followers of Jesus Christ and as such saved we have not yet been made perfect and that fact will soon make its grand entrance. May I also gently also suggest that many of the problems you will encounter have far more to do with you than others as we are all flawed. That fact is usually forgotten and easily ignored as the “warts” on your nose are far more obvious to me than the ones on my nose given the fact that I chose to spend the bulk of my time focusing on your problems while dismissing mine as “Beauty marks.” Therefore, with that in mind I would submit the for criteria for finding the “Right Church;” It honors God, They faithfully and unreservedly teach the Word of God, They are mission-minded, and You are able to connect with others. Before briefly addressing those points I will point out that any attempt to follow any process before bringing it to the Lord in prayer is destined to fail. Only the Holy Spirit can guide and protect and you must begin by seeking God to find the Church family that He will work through to help you grow.
The purpose of creation is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ! That fact must be firmly understood as it runs so very contrary to the contemporary mind, even within the Body of Christ. Any church that does not seek to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus is far outside the boundaries and purposes of the local church. In fact I would go so far as to submit that this is the root of all other points that I will make. Much to my dismay I find an ever-increasing number of people that pay lip-service to this idea but are wholly unwilling to put it into practice. A willingness to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus must be the earnest desire of any church that you would associate with. This means that in all matters that body and most specifically the leadership must hold firm to conducting the business of the church and dealing with situations that come before the church in a manner keeping with the revealed character of God. This means that often that church will find themselves in the increasingly frequent position of being at odds with not only the world but those within the family who have chosen the coward’s way rather than faithfully following the Lord.
What the church teaches about God and having a relationship with Him is found in one place only and that is the Bible. While we may learn a broad-spectrum of things about the fact of the existence of God through “General Revelation,” or that which may be commonly seen in nature all that we know of the offense of the sin-sickness and rebellion of man, the destiny of the lost, and the person and work of Christ we learn only from the inspired and inerrant Word of God. God’s Word is not a complete history of the world and it was not intended to answer every question that may occur to man. As much as men may be unwilling to admit it, there are things we simply do not understand about it as we do not have the requisite knowledge to comprehend all of its truths. For example, there are those that chose to disparage the Word by allowing that it may contain errors pointing to something such as a battlefield account of the number of troops engaged in the conflict in one passage that gives a certain number and in another passage there is a different number. Thus the case is made that there must be an error. These men are to timid to stand faithfully on the truth that the Word is correct and we obviously do not have all the information. Any “church” that backs away from the Word in any way should be avoided like the plague as this is what this type of flawed thinking is on our society in addition to the fact that it seeks to besmirch the very name of God.
Only cannibals are consumed by themselves and any church that is not mission-minded cannibalizes itself. The charge by our Lord is to make disciples, not see how large and extravagant we can make our physical plant. Of course we need a building to meet in and I am not in the crowd that advocates the need to meet outside under a tent as the singular way to honor the Lord. However, our purpose needs to be reaching our beyond our walls to the community, state, nation, and world and the “Right Church” is the one that has a strong desire to reach out beyond its borders to a lost and dying world and the willingness to put that into practice. Therefore you will find that the “Right Church” uses a substantial portion of its resources to reach the lost.
I have intentionally chosen to place the fourth point that, you are able to connect with others, in the last position. There is no doubt that this is important and there are good churches that for whatever reason one particular family just does not seem to fit in. It should not be that way but again I am talking about reality and if, even though you try, you cannot seem to connect with others then you may want to keep looking. However, depending on your personality and efforts and the personality of the people in the church this may take time and certainly should not be the driving factor but it is important as you need those relationships.
This, I would submit as being a good set of guidelines to follow in looking for the “Right Church.” It is not and is not intended to be a perfect system; it is only a guide to help you as you seek the “Right Church.”
