What to Look For in a Church--Daniel Wiginton

What to Look For In a Church

Most important

Does the church preach the saving gospel of Jesus Christ?

-A church must believe the essential teachings of the Christian faith, or else it is not a church.

-Go to a church where no one will have a hard time finding out how to be saved.

Extremely important

Is the Bible the church’s source of authority?

- Human reason, tradition, religious experience, and other things need to rank lower than the Bible when it comes to deciding what is true.

Very Important

Does the pastor preach the Bible?

-There’s a difference between preaching the Bible’s message and preaching your own message with Bible verses in it.

Important

Are the church’s beliefs about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church leadership what the Bible teaches?

-For example, if you believe that Baptists do these things the way the Bible teaches, then you would not be a good fit in a Methodist church.

Also important

Can you see yourself actively serving in the church?

-You need to serve, not just attend.

-Be careful not to look for ways that you think you deserve to serve (like teaching).  Serving means having a humble willingness to do anything that is needed.

-If possible, go to a church that is located within 25 minutes of where you live.  You’re not likely to get involved in serving if it is farther than that.

Worth looking into

What are the church’s beliefs about other things?

-These aren’t necessarily deal-breakers, but you might want to find these things out before you decide on a church.  Some examples are predestination and the end times.

NOT Important

Musical style

-You’re not going to fool God with the excuse that you “can’t worship” if you you’re not used to the style of music.  If Job could worship God while he was finding out his family was dead, then you can worship while weird music plays.

Whether or not it “feels like” your home church

It probably won’t.

Whether or not the people at the church are similar to you in age, race, income, or life situation

-One of the things that God values most about the church is that it brings people together based on their faith in Christ even when they might have nothing else in common (Eph 2:11-22; Gal 3:29).