What makes a good church?
Posted by Todd Lowans | Posted in church , what makes a good church? | Posted on 1:34 PM
Over the past year and a half I have been searching for a church. This is really the first time in my life that I have had to do this, as I grew up in a pastor’s home. I never realized how hard it could be to find a church, and to be quite honest with you it’s been one of the most frustrating things I have dealt with in a long time. So through this seemingly endless search I have had to ask myself what makes a good church?
Is it the pastor? The teaching? The music? The location/facilities? The congregants? The programs they offer? The people? The easy answer is: it’s a mix of all of theses things. I agree with that, but let’s be honest, you’ll never find the perfect mix. Now, I know I'm pretty picky when it comes to church, I want a certain type of music, I want the pastor to challenge me every week, I want to go somewhere where everyone knows my name (no not Cheers), I want people my age to be in abundance (which is probably that hardest thing to find these days in most churches), I never want the pastor to teach something I don’t doctrinally agree with, basically I want, I want, I want. And you know what, that’s the problem.
I was talking to a friend and I told him that I’m convinced since I went to Bible school that I have been tainted when it comes to picking a church. I always seem to find the few things I disagree with, don’t like or annoy me about any church I visit. I said that my main complaint was that no churches had good programs for young married couples. When I said this, he just looked at me and said, “You have to find a church, commit to it and help it become better.” Now he wasn’t saying that somehow I hold the keys to making an ok church a great, he was just saying that instead of complaining about the church not having a young married class then I should start one. This made me realize something, church isn’t about me! Pretty shocking I know.
Absolutely, you want to go to a church where there is a good community where you feel comfortable. You should definitely like your pastor –and programs are important. But church is not about you just feeling comfortable; it’s about you living a life of worship inside a community of believers. It’s about growing in Christ, learning more everyday about the Creator of the universe, and living out your faith. Church is about God not you!
With that said, I am not thanking God for directing us to a community of people who are becoming our church home. The church (as we think of it, i.e. building, weekly service) is not quite planted, but it will be in God’s time.
In the next few weeks I will be writing some blogs about some of the things you can do to improve your church. Check back to catch the posts.
This is a difficult question to confront because it exposes what you think a church should be even if you don't know what you think a church should be.
The question I have had for the last few years is what the purpose of any given church should be. I think that a lot of the issues that people have in finding a church, then in dealing with problems at the church that they pick, is that there is no real consensus about the purpose of a church or what should be the priority in a church.