3 Steps to Find and Evaluate a Good Church

Don’t be persnickety or superficial. Know what’s important and why.

As a pastor of a local church, I often talk with people about what they are looking for in a church. Over the last 10 years of ministry in a rural East Texas church, I’ve regularly talked with folks about the possibility that some other church might suit their desires and preferences better. And, of course, I’ve seen no short supply of people who have set their standards too high or too low.

A “church-shopper” (in common parlance) is someone (or more than one, such as a family or group of friends) who is looking for a new church to join. Sometimes this is due to a recent move, sometimes there has been some difficulty in a previous church, and sometimes church-shoppers are looking for a church more suitable to their present desires or convictions.

Sometimes church-shoppers can be persnickety. A persnickety person is someone who is hard to please, who is over-critical, or who fusses over matters of little or no importance. This has become especially common in our day of internet preachers and ministries, and people want a local church that looks and sounds like what they’ve seen advertised online. In my own experience, and as I’ve talked with pastor friends of mine, I have occasionally been exasperated (mostly irritated, but sometimes angered, if I’m honest) by just how persnickety some church-shoppers can be.

There are many and varying bad reasons to leave a church, and there are lots and assorted bad reasons to want to join a church. Let’s assume that you have every good intention, that you are leaving (or have left) your previous church well (i.e., without bitterness or unresolved conflict), and that you really want to enjoy the benefits of healthy church membership.

• What kind of church should you be looking for?

• What characteristics should it have?

• How are you prioritizing the list of features you’ve established?

First, make a list.

What do you want in a local church? I think you should probably write down the features that are important to you. So often, we have undefined expectations, which can end up landing us in a church (or out of church) simply based on feeling. We want a “good” church, a “welcoming” church, an “authentic” church, and an “active” church; but what exactly to these adjectives mean? What does this look like in reality?

If someone asks you why you liked this church and not that one, you could probably list a few differences. But what we really need is an objective way to know why a church is true, healthier, or better suited for us. You may have heard the saying: “The goalpost keeps moving.” This can easily happen when we are looking for a church to join. But to prevent that, we can make a list of what we’re looking for in order to fix the goalpost to one point on the field, and aim for it until we hit it.

Here are some features of a local church you might include on your list:

• I want a Baptist church (as we all should 😀)

• I want expositional preaching on Sundays.

• I want regularly scheduled fellowship groups or events.

• I want structured programming (kid’s and youth activities, women’s events, men’s groups, outreach initiatives, etc.).

• I want to be able to know the pastor(s) and for him/them to know me.

• I want the church members to be striving for deep and meaningful relationship.

• I want a good mix of various age and social demographics.

• I want a church that is counter-culture but also compassionate to non-Christians.

We might list many more features, and not all of them should bear the same weight as the rest… which leads us to step two.

Second, evaluate your list.

With your list in one hand and your Bible in the other, try to find biblical grounding or rationale for the items on your list. This may seem elementary, and some people might think it a waste of time (you want what you want after all), but I assure you that the exercise will be worth it. Try to find a Bible verse or passage that might provide a rationale for each item you’ve listed, and write the Bible citation down beside each one.

• You want to hear public prayer in your church each Sunday?

  • Great! But are you sure this is biblical? Where does the Bible speak to the subject?

• You want your church to prioritize the discipling of children?

  • Great! But what does the Bible say about that?

• You want your church to have excellent music? A good youth pastor? A small building? A food pantry? A particular liturgy?

  • Fine… But where do you see these in the Bible?

How and where does the Bible give you warrant for each item on your list? And how might that biblical warrant (or lack thereof) help you prioritize the features you have listed?

It will probably come as no surprise to learn that a lot of what we think about as “essential” or “necessary” to church life is more formed by our personal experience or preference than it is by reading Scripture. I recommend that you make some distinction between those items on your list that are biblical (i.e., have some biblical rationale) and those that are preference (i.e., have no biblical rationale, but you still feel strongly about them).

This exercise should be both revealing and edifying. And step two leads us right into step three.

Third, evaluate your list again.

1. Prioritize biblical convictions over preferences, and prioritize central convictions over those that are less vital to church health.

Once you’ve done the good work of trying to distinguish your preferences from your biblical convictions, invite a friend or two to help you prioritize all of your items. There are bound to be some preferences that we should be willing to forgo in order to join a church that aligns with all of our biblical convictions. So too, there are bound to be some biblical convictions that have a greater priority than others.

One example in my own church is the leadership structure. When I first joined my present church, there were a number of committees and only one pastor. My own conviction was (and still is) that there should be a plurality of pastors, and that those pastors should bear the authority to lead the church. Only after several years did my church make the move from a committee-led church to a pastor-led church, but I happily joined before I knew that would happen.

2. Decide which items on your list are those you cannot live without.

The features in focus here should be those that are most fundamental to our understanding of what a local church is. For most of us, the answer to this question will spring from our understanding of the gospel and our beliefs regarding baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But even here, there will be some room for evaluation.

• Can you be a member of a church that baptizes believers under 18 years of age?

• How about one that only baptizes believers over 12 years of age?

• How about a church that observes the Lord’s Supper every Sunday?

• How about once a quarter?

And don’t forget your first evaluation! If you can’t live without an item on your list that falls into the category of preference (i.e., it has no biblical rationale or verse citation to back it up), then you are probably thinking like a persnickety church-shopper. Don’t do that.

3. Find churches nearby that intentionally align with your deepest convictions.

Once you’ve narrowed down that handful of features that are most important to you, look for churches that share and embody them. You’re looking for a church that embraces and values these characteristics on purpose.

• You can begin with an online search.

  • Churches will often display what is important to them on their website. Of course, not all churches have a website, but many do.

  • If you value expositional preaching, see if a church lists that as one of their values as well, and you can usually listen to the last few sermons to discover this as well.

  • If you value meaningful church membership, see if a church lists their membership process, publicizes a membership covenant, and/or describes their practice of church membership online.

  • And most church websites have some sort of contact option listed, so you can always reach out directly (via email or phone call) to ask questions about what you value.

• Make the effort to visit.

  • While visiting a church for the first time on a Sunday morning can be intimidating, most churches will be so glad to welcome you.

  • Unless there is something that completely opposes one of your core values on that first Sunday, then I’d recommend visiting at least a few times before you try to make a thoughtful evaluation of any church.

  • Don’t arrive late and leave early, but try to connect with some church members or one of the pastors after the service. You might even get an invitation to lunch if you make yourself available, and you can really get to know a church by spending time with those who are already part of it.

• Compare your list with the church options you have.

  • With your prioritized list in hand, compare how well each church option aligns with your convictions and preferences.

  • Be honest about what you’ve observed, and be realistic about your preferences.

  • Don’t wait to find the “perfect” church. Instead, be grateful for a good church, and commit to humbly serve Christ and others as a loving and engaged member.

Conclusion

In a culture like mine (the fading Bible-belt of the Southern United States), there are numerous church options. Within 15 miles of my house, there are Presbyterian churches, Methodist churches, Baptist churches, fundamentalist churches, Pentecostal churches, and non-denominational churches.

Under these broader categories, there are big churches and small ones, highly programmatic churches and more organic ones. There are churches with solo pastors, several pastors, full-time vocational pastors, and bi-vocational pastors. There are churches with family integrated church services and others with a full range of children’s and youth programs that aim to segregate everyone into peer-groups.

At the end of the day, the Bible clearly instructs Christians to be members of local churches. If you want to grow as a Christian, and if you want to help others do the same, then a local church is the context in which God has designed that to happen.

If you’re in East Texas, then reach out to me (marc@fbcdiana.org). I’d be happy to help you think through your features list and your church options.

May God help us all to consider our convictions carefully, to be humble as we acknowledge our preferences, and to be charitable (not persnickety) as we aim to join with other Christians in our efforts to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.