How to Choose a Church

Whether you have a place you call a church home or feel that it's time for you to find a new place. It's important to know how to find the right place for you. Usually though, I find that people find a place for all the wrong reasons. And therefore they are really just wasting their own time going to the place from week to week. Having the right perception and perspective on "why" you should even be going to church is a good start. If you have the wrong perception and perspective you'll fail to mine out of the place the thing that you should.

Here are the wrong reasons to go to a church or choose a church:

1. "I am doing God a favor...": Lots of people go to church weekly because they feel they have to check it off their list. "God, I was at church this week, mark me on your attendance sheet" even though the whole time you spent sleeping or planning your early escape. I've even heard somebody go so far as to say, "God is lucky I even showed up today!" Newsflash: God doesn't need YOU to be who HE is, but you do need HIM to be who you are.

2. "This is the popular church in town": I'm not bashing the popular church in town, in fact, I had gone to the popular church in town for almost 10 years before I moved on. There are people who are assigned to the popular church, and for them, that's the right place to be. But are you there because it's the popular church or are you there because you are supposed to be there?

3. Networking & Opportunity: Sunday (or whatever day you go to church) service is not the weekend networking mixer for you to go with the intent to pass out your business card. Neither is it the social mixer where you go with the intention to find a date. You know, because everyone knows that the best girls aren't at the club... they're at church! Also it's not the place to try out your singing voice in the choir to see if you can get signed to a record label. (Trust me, I've seen all of these.) Granted, if going to church with right motives, it's a possibiliy that you will network, you may find your mate, and perhaps you will get to try out your singing voice.

4. "The Choir SANG and the Preacher Preached!": If you go to church because it has the best choir in the city and you got to "get your praise on" and that's it. That's an awful reason to choose a church. But wait, "the preacher sure did preach and we had a good ol' time!" If that's the case and I ask you later what he talked about and you don't remember or he taught you something that you can't go apply to your everyday life. Reconsider.

Here are the RIGHT REASONS to go to or choose a church:

1. Don't forsake the assembling together: (Hebrews 10:25) Church is really for our benefit. The Bible tells us not to forsake assembling together because there is something that takes place when believers get together to fellowship and hear teaching. There is some impartation and exhorting and encouraging that takes place.

2. You NEED a Pastor: (Jeremiah 3:15) says that God will give us Pastors that feed us with knowledge and with understanding. When you are looking for a church, seek for the pastor not to simply entertain you but have the ability to feed you with knowledge and understanding that is practical and you can take and execute in your life. There is a difference between someone being able to simply give you knowledge from the Bible but it should also be able to take what you learn and make a plan for your life based on that knowledge. Most of what you need should be able to be expressed over the pulpit.

3. Straight From The Book: The Pastor needs to be opening up the Bible and showing you line upon line about what they are saying. They should be able to show you that what they are saying is in the book, and should be able to expound and teach to make things clear in an understandable fashion. 4 points and a poem is not enough. You have to be able to live out what's being taught or else you've wasted your day. The Bible is like a mirror that when it's opened up and you see that you don't look like that, you've got work to do.

4. Challenges You To Change: You are pretty good, but you're not perfect. Look for a place that challenges you to change and get better. The place should minister to every area of your life - spirit, soul, body, relationships, family, finances, health, etc. If you are going to a place and you don't feel like you are being challenged against yourself, reconsider. You don't want to be somewhere where when they are showing you from the Bible what your life should be, that it is giving you justification to stay the same.

5. Place to Get Involved and Experience Love: A good church will have an inhaling and exhaling. You should be able to get involved and help the vision of that place go forward. That's like going to someone house every week to eat but never contributing. You should be able to invest in the place with your time, money and love. And the members should be able to love on you back.

6. When you know... you know: Pray and ask God to help you find the place. Contrary to popular believe, all churches are not the same. And all churches are not for you. The Bible says that God places the people in the body as he sees fit. So before you arrive at the place you may have never thought that you would ever attend there, but once you get there it will feel like home. And you will find that all many of your questions will get answered there, you'll experience progress, and you'll find for that season provision will be there.