The Search For A Church: What To Consider and Why You Should Consider It
August 29, 2019
The start of a new semester is upon us and thousands are flooding into Lynchburg for college. Before leaving Lynchburg for the summer, maybe you were questioning whether you should keep going to the church you are going to in Lynchburg or not, maybe you were church hopping in hopes of finding one that made you feel like you were at home, or maybe you have not been going to church at all, relying on podcasts and a Shane & Shane playlist for a church experience. If you are an incoming freshmen, the search for a church to plug into, belong to, and serve with can be a daunting task as your church will hopefully shape, mold, and encourage your walk with the Lord. Regardless of what state of your academic career you are in, the search for a church to go to is important. Through this post, I hope to highlight things to look for in a church and things to seek bringing about within your current church body.
You Need To Be Going To Church
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul gives us qualifications for overseers and deacons and in 2 Timothy 5 he gives us instructions for the church. Hebrews 10:24-25 literally states “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” All of these passages and more point to the fact that churches are within God’s divine design – from the actual gathering of believers to those in positions of leadership over that body of believers – and He emphasizes the importance of being a part of a church, with fellow members of the Church. If you are a believer, neglecting gathering together in a body of believers is bluntly unwise, foolish, and unsafe. With all that being said, your search for a good church should be at the forefront of your priorities if you are not in one, so take this seriously.
What To Look For, What To Avoid
Though hilarious, it is sad that a lot of people approach finding a church with the pettiness John Crist satirically displays in his videos Church Hunters: Episodes 1 and 2.1 We far too often go to church sorely mistaken into thinking that it is about us when in reality, the epicenter of the church is God; it is not about us dressing up nice, sharing social niceties, taking pictures in our outfits to display on social media afterwards, getting a cup of coffee, enjoying a concert, hearing a lecture, and leaving feeling better about ourselves, so if you are going to church wanting comfort in the sense of luxury and ease, entertainment, or to just get your religion in for the week, sadly you are doing it wrong.
It is not that nice clothes, coffee, and quality musicianship are bad things, it is just that we all too often make church about ourselves, our comfortability, entertainment, and interests, and not about God, with the ultimate goal of each Sunday leaving church in awe of God, challenged by His Word, and praying for God to search and know us and to lead us in the way everlasting as Psalm 139 says. Church should be a place where we are bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), helping each other overcome doubt (John 20:26-31), praising together (Psalm 147-150), having hard conversations rooted in scriptural truth (Ephesians 4:25-27), encouraging one another (Hebrews 10:25), holding each other accountable (Galatians 6:1-5), discipling one another (Matthew 28:19-20), and doing life with one another (James 5:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). If your motivations behind church fit within the comfort zone, this may be a wake-up call for you to search that much more for a church that strives to be what a church is supposed to be.
Note that I did not say find a perfect church, because you are not going to; as Hank Hanegraaff once said, “If you find a perfect church, don’t join it; you’ll ruin it.”2 You cannot find a perfect church congregation because we are imperfect people in a sinful world, but what you can do is look to see if they match up with biblical descriptions of a good church. 1 Timothy and other passages thankfully give us a few descriptions:
Do they pray? 1 Timothy 2 starts by Paul urging “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people”. Well, that’s an easy enough instruction. Does the church you are looking at dedicate themselves to prayer, to fasting? Do they take time before God seriously or is it a secondary focus for them? Where there is prayer there is a deepened community and if their prayer is rooted in the right motives, that is also where you will see God all the more in your daily life as you trust all the more in His all-knowing way and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).
Do they worship? Oftentimes throughout 1 Timothy, Paul would mention God or Jesus and add an extra nugget in there about them (i.e. “God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (6:17) “he who is blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords (6:15), “… we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (4:10)) and this is a form of worship. John Piper once said, “True worship is a valuing or a treasuring of God above all things,”3 and Paul is treasuring God above all else with these compliments and praises within his speech. This speaks to the importance of worship, to be mindful to put God above all things, including ourselves; a church should worship, but it should be worship of God not ourselves.
Do they live out what they teach? In Paul’s list of qualifications for an overseer and for a deacon in 1 Timothy 3, he notes how they should be the husband of one wife (3:2,12), manage their household and children well (3:4,12), and a variety of other things. The main point of it all being that they should be setting the example, putting into action what they are being taught, being a doer of the word and not a hearer only (James 1:22), and that should be modeled within the church as well, or at the very least an effort should be put towards it. No church member will get it perfect; as Billy Sunday once said, “Hypocrites in the Church? Yes, and in the lodge and at the home. Don’t hunt through the Church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the mirror. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.”4
What’s their theology? You cannot rely on your pastor for all of your theology; they can guide you through things, give wise counsel, but check things out for yourself. You have a Bible, read it yourself to check to see what you truly believe but listen to wise counsel (Proverbs 11:14, 12:15, 19:20-21). Examine whether a church is holding “…to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God…” (1 Timothy 1:10-11) and determine whether they are preaching the true Gospel and not a false-hope giving, gross distortion of the Gospel like the Word of Faith Movement’s Prosperity Gospel (which you can learn more about the dangers of by watching “American Gospel: In Christ Alone”). You do not have to agree with everything the church you are checking out believes in theologically. In fact, if you are purposely seeking out individuals that believe everything you do as well then all you are doing is seeking affirmation and comfortability; you should be challenged by your church and different opinions, but the gauge by which you measure what is being said must be scripture and not personal opinion.
The Congregation
Just about everywhere you go there are multiple generations, races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic classes within that area, and your church should reflect that; it is not a sin to have a church made up primarily of one socioeconomic group or one race, but we should recognize that heaven will contain “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages…” (Revelation 7:9, ESV). If there’s nothing but white people in the area you live in, do not feel like you are failing miserably because there are no other races within your church congregation, but if other races or generations are never sought out or people of other ethnicities being within your church congregation makes you uncomfortable, that screams that there needs to be some study of scripture, hard conversations with a mentor, and prayer for that anti-gospel disposition you hold in your heart, as the Gospel goes beyond all boundaries (Acts 10:34-35).
It would be wise to look for multiple generations within a church you are looking at as well. 2 Timothy begins with Paul acknowledging that he sees the same sincere faith that was in Timothy’s grandmother Lois and in his mother Eunice in Timothy (1:5). Proverbs 16:31 notes “gray hair is a crown of glory”; this denotes how there is encouragement to be had from the elderly, those who have been running the race for a while, who have walked the path before you, who hold so much wisdom from life experiences and decades of studying the word. While we should not be despised for our youth (1 Timothy 4:12), it is sort of hard for someone only a few years older than you to give you the kind of advice that a person twice your age could – experience often cultivates wisdom.
Final Thoughts
If you are at a church and you feel a conviction about not leaving the church but want to make a change within it to have it exemplify biblical models of what a church should look like, then that is a worthwhile mission. Be the change you wish to see within the church (looking to scripture as the model for what it should look like to begin with; there is a need for people to go into spaces and influence things for the better, undoubtedly). Start by talking with your pastor and the elders about what you see your church lacking and go from there; if there is an absolute refusal on their part to change and that is not based in scripture, after a fair amount of time, it may be time to consider actually leaving but never have them leave your prayers.
Lynchburg has a myriad of churches to choose from with a variety of denominations, preferences, settings, and styles, but regardless of the church you end up at be faithful and active, a doer rather than just a hearer, a student, a listener, a disciple maker, a server, an ambassador for Christ, and an imitator of Him while you are there and beyond.
Sources
1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT70cA-7qMk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2FrYWub95o
2http://www.quotehd.com/quotes/hank-hanegraaff-quote-if-you-find-a-perfect-church-dont-join-it-youll-ruin
3https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-is-worship
4 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/billy_sunday_183041?src=t_church
Written by: Landen Swain
Landen believes the human experience longs to be expressed; through our art, our labor, our songs, our storytelling. As a published playwright, author, and poet, he enjoys expressing his little chapter of the human experience through his writings and is thankful that the SA blog allows him to do that. He is published in numerous magazines, literary journals, and has several plays published by Off the Wall Plays, an online play publishing house.