How to Choose a Church

A three-word answer should be sufficient: pray about it. That should be enough, but God did give us minds for the purpose of decision-making. Still three words apply: pray and think. So, what are the data points to consider when looking for a place to call home in the body of Christ. You might want to read my post, “What is the Church?” as background to this question. I ended that post with the very ungrammatical statement that “church” is a verb. The point is that the true church is believers in action. What I want to develop here is a list of biblical actions we should look for in a potential church. I am also going to use the word “church” to refer to a local body of believers.

The first thing on my list is an absolute: the Word of God must be preached and taught in its fullness. There is room for some disagreement as to what “fullness” means. For example, churches that use the term “full gospel” usually go over-full by requiring speaking in tongues as a necessary sign of salvation. That’s not gospel; that’s extra-biblical. The rest of the “full gospel” program falls into an area of opinion: miracles, healing and other supernatural activities may or may not be part of your expectations. In my mind they neither qualify nor disqualify a church.

Another common difference between churches that preach the Word of God consistently relates to their interpretation of the New Covenant. Churches that preach so-called covenant theology generally compare the new birth in Christ to the Old Covenant practice of marking God’s chosen through circumcision. Because of this, they baptize infant children of believers to identify them with the family of God. Most follow this some years later with a confirmation that establishes the validity of the infant baptism.

This practice differs dramatically from the beliefs of those who hold to adult, believer’s baptism. That practice traces back to the time of the Reformation when certain groups broke away from the other reformers by requiring adults to be baptized. They were called “anabaptists” which means re-baptizers since they were generally baptizing adults who had been baptized as infants. The name became shortened over the years to what we now know as Baptists.

The Word of God can be preached faithfully in both covenant and Baptist-type churches. My search of the Scriptures has led me to conclude that adult, believer baptism by immersion is the purest biblical practice. However, I believe that there will be myriads of brothers and sisters in Heaven who were baptized as infants. There are some groups who believe one cannot be saved without water baptism. This takes the issue too far in my opinion. Baptism is an essential step of obedience not an essential part of salvation. The only essential baptism is that of the Spirit, and that may or may not involve water. In any case, the issue of baptism is one that we can agree to disagree on.

Once you are satisfied that a church is preaching the Word, you need to learn what they are doing about it. After all, if church is a verb, actions reveal the true nature of the body in question. There are two main reasons for a church to exists: one is to nurture its members and the other is to reach the lost. Several years ago God prompted me to write a book called Lead a Horse to Water in which I lamented the lack of community outreach in many otherwise healthy churches. You should find vital nurturing and intentional outreach programs in the church you choose.

Preaching, teaching, and reaching are three essentials. You may be blessed to find several candidate churches that meet these criteria. In that case, you look at non-essential matters. Are the location and times of services convenient? Do you feel welcomed when you first attend? Does the worship style suit your taste? Whether they sing hymns accompanied by an organ or feature a contemporary worship band, the clincher is whether people are encouraged to worship God. It will be important to find a church with an active prayer life and a strong sense of community. These things are mentioned as distinctives of the very first church in the book of Acts. Keep in mind that no church can be all things to all people. We are called to unity not uniformity. Scripture leaves room for diversity.

Another matter which leaves room for disagreement regards the government of the church. In Protestant churches there are two basic types of government with variations in each type. I am going to simplify the categories by inventing my own names for each. I call them democratic and dogmatic. Neither term is perfect, but I will explain what I mean. The Greek word “demos” means people; democratic government is government by the people. A democratic church allows members to vote on important issues facing the body.

There are very few purely democratic bodies because most have a leadership structure that oversees the workings of the church. The leaders define the issues that the church votes on. I chose the word “oversees” purposely. The word the Apostle Paul often uses for church leaders is overseer. In democratic type churches, the overseers are often elected by the body, or if not democratically chosen, the leaders themselves choose the overseers creating a self-perpetuating board.

The type of church government I am calling dogmatic also comes from a Greek word: dogma. A dogma is a teaching; to be dogmatic is to stick to the teaching. The dogma or teaching of Scripture lends two different names to a type of government that is led by specially chosen individuals. Paul uses both names interchangeably. They are episcopal and presbyterian. The common English translation of the Greek word for overseer is where we get the name for the episcopal type of government. In Greek, a presbyter is an elder, a name we also use for church leaders.

One other leadership term from the Greek has come to us as well: deacon. Some churches combine the deacons and elders to form a hierarchical form of government. Often, pastors, another biblical term, serve as elders with deacons as advisors. Frustrating though it may be, there is no clear outline in Scripture for church government. The dogma I have mentioned lends itself to several possible interpretations.

The key for me is this: the New Testament does not mention congregational voting. The reason for this is clear to me. Throughout the New Testament, church leaders are specially gifted and chosen because they have the correct qualities: they are to be full of the spirit and wisdom, as well as several other qualifications Paul lists in his letters. It is highly unlikely that every voting member of a congregation would meet the biblical qualifications for leadership. To suggest that a group of people with questionable attributes should pass judgment on God’s will for a church is ludicrous. As I said in “Wise Up, America,” our culture has become infected with a desire for independence and individualism that has crept into our thinking about the church and our relationship to God.

The next thing on my list should be with the essentials, but I list it here because all the non-essential matters should be satisfactory or this last, but most important item won’t be comfortable. I assume you know what your spiritual gift is; everyone has one; read 1 Corinthians 12. This is where prayer becomes a necessity. You must ask God (and perhaps the leadership of the candidate church) if your gift is needed, or perhaps whether it is even recognized by the church. Needless to say, if your question is met with a blank stare, this is not the church for you. Any church that does not recognize and utilize the spiritual gifts of its members as a regular course of action is not worth consideration.

Because I am married, I have one more essential criterion: my wife must agree with the choice. I covet her input because she has an extremely sensitive spirit. She can pick up on things that slide right past my radar, probably because I am too intellectually concerned for my own good. The Apostle Paul would describe me as being soulish (that’s the intellect) rather than spiritual in some things. He told the Romans that those who are in the flesh (soulish) are not able to please God. It goes without saying that I want our choice of a church home to be pleasing to God.

I have already said that no one church can meet everyone’s expectations; I must also say that there is no perfect church. Why? Because churches are made of people and people are imperfect. When choosing a church, find one that comes closest to meeting the biblical criteria, and then pitch in. Do church to the best of your ability. Remember: you are the church.

Related posts: What is the Church? Bringing the Kingdom