Going to Church

Being a Christian means you have a relationship with Jesus.

  • This does not mean you go to any particular church, but it does mean you’ll naturally become part of the Church at large.

God calls believers to connect with each other, so Christians shouldn’t neglect fellowship (Hebrews 10:23-25).

  • Fellowship is effectively sharing a lifestyle in a loving community with other believers (Acts 2:42).
  • We have fellowship by worshiping God with others through loving each other and sharing beliefs about sound doctrine (John 4:19-24).
  • We don’t need a routine congregation, but we do need routine fellowship, which is most often fulfilled through a congregation.
  • Without this fellowship, we start developing strange beliefs, which adversely affects our ability to trust God.

The church network is connected through the catholic church.

  • The catholic church is the universal Body of Christ across the world (not necessarily the “Catholic” denomination).

A church is a Christian community, not a building or location.

  • A church spiritually grounds itself on God’s Word (Ephesians 2:19-22), and any believers gathering to worship together are a church.
  • God shows Himself in church services when that church focuses on giving God praise.

Without persecution, church members usually form into demographically similar groups based on personality, with the leadership made of the most extreme personalities:

  • High openness to experience – spirituality is represented as perpetual transience (John 3:8)
  • Low openness to experience – spirituality is represented as tradition (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
  • High conscientiousness – following God requires following His rules (Deuteronomy 8:1)
  • Low conscientiousness – following God is a matter of love (1 Corinthians 10:33)
  • High extraversion – we must be heavily engaged in fellowship and service (Galatians 5:13)
  • Low extraversion – we must be heavily concerned with self-reflection and prayer (1 John 5:15)
  • High agreeableness – God is highly gracious and merciful (Titus 2:11)
  • Low agreeableness – God delivers His authority with a fierce severity (Romans 1:18)
  • High neuroticism – there is tremendous value in miracles and spiritual signs
  • Low neuroticism – there is tremendous value in quiet, daily devotion to God

Some churches become cults when they take away from Jesus’ simple statements, His deity, or invalidate His sacrifice.

  • If you’re a new Christian, openly voice concerns if you don’t understand that church’s interpretation of the Bible.

Church locations can be anywhere.

  • If a nation permits Christianity, the leadership will usually acquire a weekly meeting venue.
  • If Christianity is illegal, churches typically meet in houses or remote areas.
  • Above a certain size, conventional large churches meeting in person need a weekly venue for logistical reasons.

Some believers insist on meeting in specific buildings or avoiding a routine venue.

  • While their meetings are good, they sin if they hate other parts of the church (Acts 9:1-5).

Wisely choose your leaders

Scripture gives clear standards for church leaders (1 Timothy 2:12-3:13, Titus 1:5-9).

  • Church leaders must adequately succeed and be leaders by the world’s standards (1 Timothy 3).
  • If you’re not a leader yourself and don’t have a specific secondary purpose for attending a church, your presence is voting to endorse that church’s leadership.
  • There are many healthy churches out there, and it’s often an act of faith to migrate to another church.

Anyone serving in ministry should have a few universal qualifications:

  • They’re honorable.
  • They’re not deceptive, an addict, or greedy.
  • They believe strongly in the mystery of the Christian faith with a clear conscience.
  • If they’re married, their spouse is honorable, self-disciplined, and only speaks well of others.

Women can’t exercise authority over a man (1 Timothy 3:12-15).

Church elders have a few additional qualifications:

  • Reputable among the Church and non-believers.
  • Monogamous and faithful to his wife.
  • If he has children, they’re also Christians with a good reputation.

Finally, the church pastors/overseer have even more criteria:

  • He’s in a well-led household with submissive children.
  • He’s not a new convert, since new believers can easily become conceited.
  • He has a good reputation in the Church and the world.
  • He’s not conceited, quick-tempered, or violent.
  • He’s hospitable, loves goodness, disciplined, morally upright, and holy.
  • He holds firmly to Scripture and teaches correct doctrine as well as rebuking others that contradict it.

God won’t work much with leaders who are unrepentant about their sins, but those people can still draw a crowd.

  • The only way to discern a leader’s qualities is to see their personal life, which is very difficult to do in a large church.

Community worship with God is diverse

A healthy church should see a wide variety of believers, relative to the geographic region:

  • There should be both older and younger people serving in various capacities.
  • The leadership should represent the range of that region’s socioeconomic classes.
  • Given Jesus’ tendency to have compassion on the social outcasts, there should be a higher ratio of unusual people than a typical social group in the area.
  • If they’re sufficiently sharing the Gospel, they will have new believers, meaning there should be a wide spread of new versus veteran Christians.

Most churches give joy to the Lord by singing and dancing (Psalm 98:4).

  • The Bible has very little basis for whether you can or should laugh, move strangely, roll in the aisles, sit, stand, the style of music.
  • The only important detail is to maintain some sense of order in all of it (1 Corinthians 14).

Churches often pray and fast for God’s kingdom to grow and His will done.

  • The best prayers are in privacy, so public praying isn’t necessarily a biblical command (Matthew 6:5).

The Bible doesn’t specifically reference pastors’ preaching nearly as much as meeting, but churches can spend plenty of time either preaching the simple Gospel or discipleship.

  • Experienced Christians don’t typically need to hear the Gospel message every week.
  • Large-scale discipleship reaches more people, but the lack of feedback won’t give any necessary context.
  • Test the quality of the message by how much direct study of Scripture the preacher uses in the worship service.

One of the best forms of worship comes through giving.

Large churches are often easier to attend, but tend to be impersonal.

  • Their worship services are frequently a performance, where members have limited involvement.
  • The main service is usually structured to include an entertaining and shallow Gospel presentation to nonbelievers.
  • The downside of the main service is that you can easily stay anonymous for the entire performance.
  • Instead of only attending the larger congregation, find connections with others in small groups or ministries.

Joining a new church is sometimes difficult when we don’t have connections to people in that church already.

  • However, if you’re willing to follow Jesus into eternity, start by getting to know a few strangers.
  • Going to a healthy church will give plenty of opposition from Satan.

All churches are flawed

No specific church denomination is “better” than the rest, though some cultures are definitely more loving.

Every church is the sum of the Holy Spirit’s presence working within each of its members, so each church has sins that prevent its perfect operation.

  • A church’s influence is a combination of the leader’s leadership skills, the members’ motivation, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Over time, the new believers’ culture will often corrupt most churches into accepting and sometimes endorsing sins:

  • Fear of risks or dangers (especially in larger churches)
  • Treating outsiders’ suffering without any compassion (especially when they associate with regional politics)
  • Gluttony among the members (especially in the West)
  • Idolatry of comfort, consumerism, or patriotism
  • Accepting lies through deception or flattery
  • Hatred of other churches or people groups (especially in smaller churches)
  • Religiousness and legalism that remove the spiritual benefit of church services

Attend church and disregard its imperfections.

  • Every Christian comes from the world, so God will sanctify them in His timing.
  • Learn to love despite the corruption.
  • Leave when you see the leaders accepting sinful behavior.
  • Don’t try to “fix” the Church beyond what you can control.

Worship God at whatever church you go to.

Wherever you go, give freely.

  • Give money to help support the church.
  • The best time to give may be against where your intuition would lead.
    • Everyone gives to charities during the Christmas season, but churches tend to suffer from it.
    • Charities don’t receive many donations during most of the year, especially in spring and summer.
    • Donors will often overlook parachurch organizations.
    • Churches are frequently neglected in a natural disaster or large-scale crisis from giving to humanitarian organizations.
  • Find places the Church has needs, then fill the void as you see how you can help.

The only way to discover a Christ-centered church is to attend one.

  • Staying noncommittal means others won’t challenge you to grow, and you’ll never find meaning with others.
  • Finding the right church is trial-and-error, so don’t linger long in an unhealthy one without a reason.
  • Growing Christians often transition through multiple churches, and we should be prepared to go wherever God leads (John 3:8).