How to Find a Church

Call me weird, but one of things that I really enjoy doing is helping people find a good, gospel-centered, bible-believing church in their area for them to attend.  I believe that where you attend church is an extremely important part of your Christian life.  Therefore, after having had to find a good church to attend twice in the past 5 years (due to relocating to a different area of the Midwest) and after helping many people try to find a good church in their area, I have compiled a short (and hopefully helpful) primer on how to find a good local church.  I hope this serves you well!

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There are a few tools that I use first to look for a solid church in a particular area.  I use these because I am totally on board with these ministries and would more than likely recommend any church that is affiliated with them.  Here are the four:

Sovereign Grace Ministries: The church that my wife & I attend is part of Sovereign Grace Ministries.  I can't say enough good things about this ministry.  If there is one in your area, your church search may be easier than you think.
The Gospel Coalition: This is a gospel-centered organization for pastors & their churches.  You can find out more about them here.
9Marks: 9Marks is "a ministry dedicated to equipping church leaders with a biblical vision and practical resources" whose goal is to help create "churches that display the glory of God."  You can find out more about them here.
Acts 29 Network: This is Mark Driscoll's church planting network.

So, here's how I would suggest you use these 4 tools.  Go to each website and do a search for churches in your area.  If you find one in your area, I would definitely add that to list of churches to visit.  Now, obviously, there are lots of great churches out there that will not show up on these tools.  These 4 sites are just meant to help you find some of the great churches out there.  This is just the first place I would go to start looking because of the high quality of these gospel-centered ministries.

Now, before you expand your search any further, you should probably sit down and figure out exactly what you are looking for in a church.  One of the great things that looking for a local church does is that it drives you right back to Scripture in order to help you figure out what the bible teaches.  Consider it a mini-theology course.  It will force you figure out what the heck you believe.

Now, maybe you've already done this.  If so, awesome!  But if not, you will need to decide on what are theological must-haves (gospel-centered, justification by faith alone, God's Word as inerrant, etc.), theological convictions (infant baptism or believer's baptism? tongues, prophecy, & healing or not? Calvinist or Arminian? women as possible pastors or not?), and preferences (worship style, dress code, small groups, etc.) in a church.  Obviously, theological must-haves & theological convictions are much more important in a church than your preferences.  Here's an good rule-of-thumb to go by: The church you decide on must meet all of your theological must-haves, most (if not all) of your theological convictions, and some of your preferences.

Once you've figured out your list of theological must-haves, theological convictions, and preferences, start compiling a list of churches to visit by looking at each church's:
  • Statement of Faith on their website to see if they match your theological must-haves and convictions.
  • Vision/Purpose Statement on their website to see if you are on board with them.
  • Example of what a Sunday gathering might look like to see how they match up with your preferences.
After you've compiled the list, start visiting each church and whittle down the list.  While you won't be able to get all of your questions answered by visiting each church's website, you should be able to answer almost all the rest by visiting the church itself.  You can tell a lot about a church by the books they stock in their bookstore, by the songs they sing during worship, by the pastor's sermon, and by the people themselves.

Once you've whittled down your list to a few that you are seriously interested in, I would recommend scheduling a meeting with the pastor of each church left on your list.  In that venue, you can ask more specific questions that you would like answered before you decide on which church you want to attend.  These might be questions you never got answered when you were looking through the church's website.  Or they may be more theological questions that can be best answered by the pastor himself.  Whatever the questions might be, it's good to sit down and have a conversation with the pastor himself to get the best understanding of what a church is like.

After you've done all that, the last and most important thing you can do is pray.  God is glorified when you acknowledge that no amount of research could ever replace the guiding hand of God in your decision of where to attend church.

For your added benefit, I've added some additional helpful resources to aid you in your church search.  Hope this helps!

What are the 9 marks of a healthy church?:  These 9 marks will really help you evaluate different churches as you go and visit.  It's thoroughly biblical and extremely helpful.
Why Join a Church by Don Whitney
Questions to Ask When Looking for a Church Home by Don Whitney
Practical Tips on How to Find a Church by Dan Phillips
Good Reasons for Moving On From a Church by Jason Helopoulos