What do you look for in a church?

[EarlyActs]

I would recommend those which

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

What would make you leave a church?

I would recommend those which are teaching through a book/letter steadily, building context(s). The random sound-byte selector preacher can really morph things away from the original.

I think I would leave if a group did not find a way to put me to use. With a master's in NT background, I'm not quite the usual believer in the seats. That was half the reason last time, but the other half was that my medical work had me on call every other weekend, so I wasn't really anywhere. Then I found a church halfway to the office and they were very interested in my Cataclysm geology materials and put up signage.

I did leave one other one, but it was because I found a Christian school housed in another. Coincidentally, the teacher made his first full-section teaching (he had been picking sound-byte passages around an easy outline or acronym. But right when he got to the defining thing about the passage, he left it and told about an event in his life, from completely different contexts and issues. A good time to leave, I thought.

 

[prism]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

What would make you leave a church?

1. Do they have a saving Gospel?
2. Is God's Word inerrant and infallible? (These two are practically inseparable)

Leave?
3. Do they have fresh (stay) or stale (leave!) donuts?

 

[Eleanor]

1. Do they have a saving Gospel?
2. Is God's Word inerrant and infallible? (These two are practically inseparable)

Leave?
3. Do they have fresh (stay) or stale (leave!) donuts?

Puttin' the hay where the goats can get it!

 

[Fred]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

For the most part an Independent Fundamental KJV-Only Baptist Church.

What would make you leave a church?

A woman "pastor"
Bossy women
Effeminate men
Contemporary Christian Music

 

[prism]

Puttin' the hay where the goats can get it!

This goat has a weakness for donuts. lol

 

[ziapueblo]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

Truth.

What would make you leave a church?

Secularization of a Church.

 

[Arial]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

What would make you leave a church?

Systematic exposition of the word. A preacher who does not rabbit trail, hem and haw, but is clear, speaks from deep knowledge of the subject, digs deep into the atonement, the self revealed God, grace, justification etc. Oversight within the leadership.

What would make me leave?
A woman preacher, puppet shows, charismatic displays, rock music (and I am a rock'n roller but I don't think it belongs in worship) a lack of teaching of the word.

 

[ziapueblo]

What would make you leave a church?

You raise a good question here @Carbon

Surveys show that less people are in the pews and that the "none's" are increasingly growing!

 

[prism]

You raise a good question here @Carbon

Surveys show that less people are in the pews and that the "none's" are increasingly growing!

I wonder why 'less' people are in the pews, surely, it wouldn't be due to an increased number of 'nones'.

 

[ziapueblo]

I wonder why 'less' people are in the pews, surely, it wouldn't be due to an increased number of 'nones'.

Ok, maybe not worded correctly on my part.

Why are there less people in the pews then?

 

[Musician]

You raise a good question here @Carbon

Surveys show that less people are in the pews and that the "none's" are increasingly growing!

Lots of people are turning to Wicca, and other Occult practices. Another sign is being fulfilled, the falling away.

 

[ziapueblo]

Lots of people are turning to Wicca, and other Occult practices. Another sign is being fulfilled, the falling away.

You're right. New Age is huge in parts of my state.

 

[Musician]

You're right. New Age is huge in parts of my state.

And lots of young people think they can get something for nothing by invoking Demons. They think it's a game.

 

[EarlyActs]

I would certainly look for at least 3 teachers instead of just one (our has 6), and teaching that is sequential through a letter/book. Not a topical cherry picker, often resorting only to the ear-candy passages (or those which are extremely harsh or demanding; it is so easy to turn the NT into a Christian 'torah.')

 

[3 Resurrections]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

-Weekly Bible studies among small groups of the assembly in their respective homes, especially if it be large enough to divide up into several or many such groups.
-Both women and men ministering jointly in the teaching of the congregation: a true plurality of elders, since the congregation is comparable to a spiritual family, with both father and mother instructing those younger in the faith.
-The doctrines of grace emphasized and taught.
-Preterist teaching
-No pulpit, since that subtly elevates the minister to assume more authority than this position is given in scripture which emphasizes the servanthood of the ministry instead of calling it an "office".

What would make you leave a church?

-Seeing the congregation start to idolize those leading the congregation. The more personal charisma increases, the more temptation to pride and exalting that leader unduly, leading to the slippery slope of a deluded cult. Been there, done that. Got the T-shirt.
-Neglect of fervent Bible study opportunities combined with more emphasis on "programs" and entertainment - and "potlucks".
-An extreme emphasis on "authority" in the congregation and the home. A BIG red flag. Cults love this stuff.
-An "us versus them" mentality. Poisonous for evangelism.

 

[ReverendRV]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

What would make you leave a church?

I haven't had the luxury of being hyper-picky when it comes to looking for a Church; there aren't too many Reformed Baptist Churches around. If I were picky, they would be my first choice. I looked online the other day for my old ARBCA Denomination, but only the Churhes that were in the association back then, are in the association now...

No growth in 20+ years. ~ I mainly look for a Gospel Church now. Let's get people Saved...

I stay in SBC Churches these days. I'm going to my Fiancés Church now, and they're preaching through Romans; I was looking forward to Romans 9. Guess what? It may as well have been a Calvinistic Sermon, though the Preacher says he's not a Calvinist...


I find that most SBC Churches are 'close enough'...

 

[ReverendRV]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

What would make you leave a church?

It would take a lot to get me to quit a Church I've decided to make my home; that's like getting a Divorce...

I would leave a Church if I moved or got Married, etc; or if it started accepting and teaching a damnable Heresy, much like when PCA Churches divided over their issues. A Church is a Body with Doctrines; not Doctrines which happen to have a Body...

 

[ChristB4us]

What do/would you look for when your looking for a church home?

1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

1 Corinthians 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

What would make you leave a church?

When the church deviates from talking about Who Jesus is to them to talking about something else besides Him as in instead of the Son.

No church is perfect any more than a believer is perfect BUT how can a believer get better, let alone the church, if we do not address that which is an iniquity by His words? How can a church come to be speaking the same thing and be having the same judgment if we ignore the white elephant in the room for the sake of memberships with some general consensus that we are just there to worship, even if that type of worship is not the one the Father wants us to have?

And so the wolves do not care for the sheep that they scatter as they do not bother to go after them as a shepherd would. How is that a body of Christ that cares for one another?

1 Corinthians 12:25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

 

[donadams]

Who sad you have a choice!

There is only one Christ and He has only one church! Jn 16:10

Can you choose truth and Christian faith also?