A Comprehensive Guide: What to Look for When Choosing a Church Home

What to Look for When Choosing a Church Home

Many times, we get asked to help someone locate a biblically sound church. What do you need to look at when trying to find a church home?

Pitfalls of Impulsive Church Selection

There are numerous issues that can arise from rushing into choosing a church to call home.

1. Disagreement in Your Beliefs: Joining a church hastily might result in a mismatch between personal beliefs and the church's teachings, leading to dissatisfaction and spiritual disconnection. I get that you won't agree on everything. I'm talking about the basic, fundamental beliefs in Christianity.

2. Superficial Relationships: Quickly committing to a church may prevent the development of deep, meaningful relationships, resulting in a lack of genuine community support.

3. Missed Red Flags: Critical issues within the church, such as leadership dynamics or theological stances, might be overlooked, causing potential conflicts later.

4. Misunderstanding of Guidance and Expectations: This leads to misunderstanding expected obligations from you as a member or the church as a community regarding control and/or authority and how issues are handled within the church. This also can lead to a misunderstanding of what is offered in guidance for the community and spiritual needs.

Red Flags to Look for When Researching Churches:

1. They have a woman as a pastor. If you would like to read more on this subject, you may do so here.

2. They use Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation in their praise and worship music. I will touch more on this at a later

3. They have a deliverance ministry team.

4. They have had a turnover in their entire staff recently. This suggests there was major division in the church and could still be.

5. There is no statement of faith on their website.

6. They partner with known false teachers/prophets.

To see a full list of signs that a church may be Word of Faith or prosperity gospel, click here.

Necessities to Look For in a Church Home In the Initial Search

When researching a church, there are some non-negotiables to look for in the initial search. These will help you weed out the obvious issues in a local church just while doing the initial research.

1. Do they do verse by verse (expositional) preaching? In other words, it is not a topic. Why is this important? Expositional preaching is considered important for several key reasons:

It upholds the authority of Scripture: Expositional preaching focuses on explaining and applying the actual text of the Bible, rather than the preacher's own ideas or opinions. This affirms the Bible as God's authoritative word.

It teaches the full counsel of God: By working through entire books or passages of Scripture, expositional preaching covers all the topics and themes God has included in His word, not just a preacher's preferred subjects

It models proper Bible study: As the preacher explains the meaning and context of a passage, it teaches the congregation how to read and interpret Scripture for themselves

It guards against error: By sticking closely to the text, expositional preaching helps prevent doctrinal mistakes or hobby-horse theology

It lends authority to the sermon: The preacher can confidently proclaim "Thus says the Lord" when faithfully explaining the meaning of Scripture

It allows God's priorities to shape the message: Rather than the preacher choosing topics, expositional preaching lets the emphases of Scripture determine what is taught

It connects to the original intent: Expositional preaching seeks to convey the inspired author's intended meaning in its proper context

It builds biblical literacy: Over time, congregations gain a deeper understanding of the whole Bible through consistent expositional preaching

It reflects a high view of Scripture: Committed expositional preaching demonstrates a belief in the inspiration, inerrancy and sufficiency of the Bible

1. They preach/teach the Gospel.

2. They have an emphasis on discipleship and offer small groups and/or Bible studies that are verse by verse. This shows they have a high view on Scripture.

3. There is an opportunity for involvement by members.

Are you looking for a church near you? Here are a few places to find local Churches:

1. The TMS Church Finder

   https://tms.edu/find-a-church/

2. G3 Church Network Map https://g3min.org/g3-church-network/map/

3. HeartCry Missionary Society Church Finder https://heartcrymissionary.com/church-finder/

Where Do You Go to Look for These Things?

I'll use this church as an example: Emmanuel Baptist Church

Visit their website. The first thing you see when you go to their website is this:

We can tell right away what this pastor wants to convey. Their overall vision, biblical truth, biblical community, and missions at home and abroad. He also states that they are committed to verse-by-verse expository preaching.

When you click on "New Here," the first thing you see is a welcome message from the pastor:

He is currently going through the book of Galatians. He then goes into the many ministries and opportunities for fellowship and connection for all ages. You can see family is important to this church.

When you click on "Who We Are," here is what you find:

The information at these links are a gold mine! Before even stepping foot in this church, I can see if I agree with what they believe and how they run their church. Another thing to look at on their website is upcoming speaking engagements and events. If they are partnering with false teachers on these things, this is a huge red flag. I go through the red flags listed above and see if I find evidence of those things on their website. Look at their staff to see if they have a woman as a pastor or even a co-pastor.

Let's go through the red flags I listed for this church:

1. Do they have a woman as a pastor or co-pastor? No, they do not.

2. Is there evidence of the use of Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation in their praise and worship music? This is hard to tell from just looking at the website. You may have to go to a YouTube channel to find information on this. If you aren’t sure why this is important, I want to share a few resources with you at the bottom of this article!

3. Do they have a deliverance ministry team? No, I do not see evidence of this.

4. Have they had turnover in their entire staff recently? This is difficult to tell by looking at the website most of the time. You may not know this right away.

5. Is there a statement of faith? Yes, it is under "What We Believe" and I agree with it. Please be aware that sometimes once you start going, you will see the church does not actually abide by their own statement of faith. For example, Elevation Church states they believe in the Trinity on the statement of faith. However, Steven Furtick, unless he has come out and said otherwise, repented, teaches something called Modalism. These two ideas contradict one another. Many churches will put a generic statement of faith on their website to appease believers.

6. Do they partner with known false teachers/prophets? I do not see anything on their website showing any type of partnership with these types of people.

Visit their social media. Go to their YouTube. Scroll through their videos. Watch a few sermons. Get on Facebook and Instagram if they have them. Ask all of the same questions!

Once you have exhausted these resources, you should have a clear answer as to whether this is a church you would like to visit!

Here are some resources regarding worship music:

Citations:

https://www.gotquestions.org/expositional-preaching.html

https://exegeticaltools.com/2016/10/25/14-benefits-expositional-preaching/

https://gospelreformation.net/five-reasons-to-practice-expository-preaching/

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/why-is-expository-preaching-so-important

https://research.lifeway.com/2019/09/18/12-reasons-to-commit-to-expository-preaching/