What Church?

So my last post we talked about why we bother going to church, I just want to do a follow up talking about what church should like. How do you find the right church? What does it look like?

First you need to find a church that teaches the Bible, that's the most important thing. Next you need to find a church that you can be involved in. If you're driving three hours away to go to church it may not be the most practical place to attend, on the other hand if you can work that into your schedule then go for it! At different times in my life I've attended churches that met on Saturday night because that worked better for my schedule. At the risk of attending someone let me just say that we as Christians don't have to meet on a particular day, the important thing is that you make your faith, and fellowship, a priority which means figuring out when you can go and making sure you're there consistently.

You also need to find a place you're comfortable. My mom dresses up for church, she always has. She and Dad go to a church where she can feel comfortable dressing up, a place where people accept them. A friend of mind is a truck driver and recently I told him that if he's going to church somewhere that people don't understand that he can't be there every single week because of his job then he needs to find a new church.

A few weeks ago I stood in church and watched a young woman slip her shoes off to worship, another time I watched as an elder leaned down to talk to someone during offering. They felt comfortable doing these things because their churches are their homes, the congregations is their family. You need to be involved somewhere that the church becomes your family.

Don't get me wrong, it takes time, and it's not always easy to find the right church, a combination of true doctrine preached from the Word of God in a way that you can understand, and loving people who you can trust and rely on but it's so very, very important to your faith.

One more thing, notice I said "involved" not just "attending", it's not enough just to attend church. At some point God will ask you to get involved, in your church, in your community, somehow you'll be asked to live out your faith and you'll want a church family who will stand behind you and help you do just that.