When looking for a church, what questions do you ask yourself...?
- What is the childcare situation?
- What children or youth programs are available?
- Will I fit in?
- What is the pastor’s style of preaching? Will it keep me interested?
- What sort of community groups does this church have?
- Will I like the music?
While there are some genuine concerns in those questions, we must first ask, and defer to, what Scripture teaches us to look for in a church:
- Does the church base all of its teaching on scripture alone? (2 Tim. 2:15, 3:16; 4:2-5)
- Does the church have a high view of God, acknowledging and praising Him for all the ways He describes Himself? (Prov. 9:10; Psalm 145:3)
- Is the church committed to a biblical structure? (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-11)
- Does the church value and guard membership for believers only? (Heb. 10:24-25; Eph. 4:11-29)
- Does the church adhere to scripture’s guidelines about discipline? (Matt. 18:15-17; 1 Cor. 5:1-13)
- Does the church exhibit God's love through worshipping Him in all things, caring for one another, and evangelism? (Luke 10:27; 1 Cor. 10:31)
If a church meets the above scriptural requirements, then you can take comfort in the fact that you will fit in because the church is governed by God’s love and His Holy Scripture. You can take comfort in the fact that your children will be well cared for because the church values teaching young minds the truths of the Word. You can take comfort in the fact that the pastor’s sermons will be biblically based, expository, and God-centered, not man-centered.