Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Useful Church Criteria Bleg

Normally I like to provide not request information here, but this question has been troubling me since I moved. What exactly should I look for in a new church? Firstly, the church must preach the Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ. But there are many churches in the area that do that. My worry is that if we give too much attention to our non-essential preferences (music style, formality, demographics) then churches will lack a beneficial diversity. In this bleg, blog + beg, I ask my readers, what are useful criterion for finding a new church?
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4 comments:

  1. Erin6:52 PM

    1. How good is the communion bread? If it's those tiny squares of cardboard, don't look back.

    2. Speaking of bread, how much free food is available?

    3. What is the general hotness level of the members? You don't want to have to hug gross people all day, but then again you don't want a bunch of supermodels that make you look bad.

    4. Do they fly the Christian flag? That's a red flag.

    5. Finally, you must find out if the preacher/teacher has an analogy license.

    At least, that's what I'll be looking for.

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  2. Harrison Brookie6:53 PM

    Thanks Erin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Justin6:53 PM

    Here's what I would look for (in order). These are the first things I thought of.

    1. Do they hold the doctrines I consider to be foundational?

    2. How well and in what ways do they emphasize community?

    3. What are their priorities? Are they interested in having a practical, positive impact on their local community? On helping the poor and the sick? Do they have an unbalanced interest in marketing or growth?

    4. Do I like their music style, preaching style, etc? I really don't think there's anything wrong with choosing a church based on these factors, as long as you look at other factors as well. I think it's important that I enjoy the church I go to.

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  4. Harrison Brookie6:53 PM

    Justin,

    Thanks for your thoughts. Here is how Traci and I are thinking about some of those things:

    1) We are pretty much only looking at PCA churches. Not because we think those are the only good churches, but because we both really agree with their doctrinal foundations.

    2) Community seems like the buzz word for churches these days, but I don't think it's without reason. We have been looking specifically for churches with community groups.

    3) What a great point man. This is something I hadn't really thought about in detail.

    4) I think you're right. These factors can be important, just not most important.

    ReplyDelete

You are the reason why I do not write privately. I would love to hear your thoughts, whether you agree or not.

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