If you’ve ever purchased or rented a house or apartment before, you probably know the difficulty of finding something that best suits you and your family. If you have kids, maybe you need multiple bedrooms and a big backyard so they can play. Or maybe you have a lot of tools and need a shed. Maybe your budget prevents you from getting what might best suit your circumstances, so you have to settle with a smaller home for a while. There are so many details to consider when looking for a new home, but that doesn’t always mean that other homes are bad homes. Finding a church home can be similarly difficult — there are so many things to consider when trying to find the right church for you.
We may often wish that God would thunder the name of a church out of the clouds to let us know exactly where we’re supposed to be, but that is probably never going to be the case. Whatever distinctive ideas in theology we may hold to, it seems that Christians can often rely heavily on the sovereignty of God to find the right church but fail to recognize that church membership is a journey that we must endure with patience, discernment, and wisdom. We shouldn’t go around just looking for a sign of some kind nor should we make a decision based off of feelings. Finding a home church is not about where we get the most goosebumps, it’s not about how well the worship leaders sing, nor is it about how personable a pastor may be. Finding the right church for you should be about finding a group of believers that gather together to worship God in Spirit and truth.
What does it mean to worship God in Spirit and truth? In John 4, we see Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Jesus teaches the Samaritan woman that true worship is not done at the Samaritan place of worship nor at the temple in Jerusalem, but rather that true worshippers of God must worship Him in Spirit and truth. Now, there is a question to ask about the word “Spirit” here; particularly, we could ask if “Spirit” should be capitalized to refer to the Holy Spirit, or if it should be lowercase to represent to us that worship is a spiritual matter flowing from the depths of a person rather than being dependent upon one’s location. However, Christian worship should consist of the body of Spirit-filled believers around the world worshipping God from their spirits, so perhaps we could interpret it as a “both and” rather than an “either or”. So all Christians must worship truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit wherever they may be, and they must worship Him in truth.
What is truth? Or better yet, what does Jesus mean here by truth? We could simply say that Jesus is the truth (John 14:6) and so He’s saying to worship Himself, but that doesn’t seem to be the context. Samaritan worship was similar to Jewish worship, even going so far as to have a version of the Torah. However, their version of the Torah was distorted. They may have believed in the God, Yahweh, but they did not worship Him according to His divinely inspired Scriptures. This can happen in churches today; many people may claim to be Christian but depart from the historic Christian faith. We see this with Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many theologically liberal churches. We must worship God in Spirit and truth. We need to know the truth about God, about His Church, about the Scriptures, and about how we are meant to live the Christian life. This takes faithful stewardship on the part of the believer.
Too many Christians attend a church and may regularly hear blatant heresies, but have no idea because they have not been taught the truth enough to recognize a lie. This happens all over the world, and many are totally deceived. How do we know what is true and what is false? What are the lines between orthodoxy and heresy? This is where you and I have the responsibility to study the Scriptures and Church history while prayerfully and thoughtfully seeking the truth. This is not easy nor is it a brief challenge, but you may find that there are more sincere Christians in the world than you realize. Finding the right church can be a difficult journey, but there are many breadcrumbs on the trail to follow.
What I mean by breadcrumbs is the outcomes of the moments when the Church was in a situation where it was forced to combat heretical movements such as Arianism. The way the Church combatted these movements was by councils and creeds. The three historic creeds (The Apostle’s Creed, The Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed) were the Church’s defense of truth. These creeds are memorable summaries of Christian orthodoxy and have been spoken corporately in many churches for centuries. My own church recites a creed usually on a weekly basis. The Apostle’s Creed is a great place to begin; it is simple and short and should be commonly believed among all Christians. This is a great test for a church’s orthodoxy; test a church’s beliefs to what Christianity has always believed.
Christianity isn’t a religion that offers something new. If Jesus is the truth, and Jesus is God, and God is eternal, then truth is eternal. If God does not change, then neither does truth. If a church claims to have “secret knowledge” or teaches something new that no believer has ever said before, then it is probably best to move on. If a church develops a new ecclesiology (theology of the Church), producing a form of church government that removes accountability, it is probably best to move on. There are many dangerous forms of bad ecclesiology, especially in the rising NAR movement, and believers should be cautious. Churches need checks and balances. Someone may have decent theology in many areas, but if their church doctrine is bad, that will eventually affect other areas of ministry and could be potentially harmful for many believers.
I am not under the persuasion that the one, true church is limited to one institution (like Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox may believe). I believe there are many faithful Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals, and so on. We each are challenged to study the Scriptures and try our best to find the church we’re meant to be a part of, but the truth is that there are many good Christians across denominations and churches. If I am evangelizing someone, I have no issue sending someone to a variety of denominations where truth is spoken. I may have my own biases, but we are called to be one, unified Church. If the church is healthy, teaches truth, believes the Scriptures, holds to the historic Christian faith, then that is somewhere I am comfortable sending new believers. You may find that there are several churches in your area that speak truth. Are there differences in opinions? Sure. But it is unlikely you will find a perfect church anywhere this side of eternity. We must simply do our best to prayerfully and thoughtfully seek what church best represents biblical Christianity and trust that God will not refuse us even in our great ignorances.
If you need help finding a church near you, reach out to us here. We would be happy to work with you in finding a biblically sound church in your area. If you are discerning what might be the right church for you, don’t feel like you have to do it alone. Remember that Jesus did not establish a denomination; He established a Church. And He is coming back one day for His bride. There will be many Christians in many different denominations that will be raised to life on that day. My encouragement would be for believers to not fall into ecclesial anxiety. God is not looking for you to accidentally pick the wrong church so He can send you to Hell. He wants you to be surrounded by godly believers that will lift you up and worship God alongside you.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
(John 17:20–21, ESV)