A Discernment Guide from GOOD
find a church
A practical, prayerful checklist for finding a sound, Gospel-centered church wherever you are.
A practical, prayerful checklist for finding a sound, Gospel-centered church wherever you are.
Finding a church home is one of the most important decisions a believer makes, and it deserves more than a quick visit and a good first impression. This is a working checklist: a way to do your homework, visit with open eyes, ask the right questions, and weigh it all against the Word. Take what helps, and hold everything up to Scripture yourself.
Before you ever visit.
Read it closely. Is it detailed and specific, or vague and short? A thin or fuzzy statement isn't automatically disqualifying, but it's a yellow flag worth watching. Sound churches usually aren't shy about saying what they believe.
Look specifically at what they say, or don't say, about the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, His physical death and bodily resurrection, salvation by grace through faith, the Trinity, the reality of sin, marriage, sexuality, and the nature of mankind. Note what's conspicuously absent. Sometimes what a church carefully avoids stating is as telling as what it states.
Look up the church and the pastor by name. Have they taken public positions, or been in any controversy? Check what conferences, networks, or ministries they associate with. You can tell a lot by the company a church keeps.
Pull up their sermons. Listen to the last month or six weeks straight through to hear what they're feeding people right now, then skip back and sample messages from a year or two ago to check consistency over time.
As you listen, ask: Is it actually the Word being preached, or motivational talks with a verse on top? Do they handle the text in context, or proof-text? Is the gospel actually preached? Is sin named? Is Christ central?
See it with your own eyes.
Visit in person, more than once if you can. Watch how the Word is treated, how the people treat each other, and whether Christ, or something else (the show, the personality, the cause) is at the center.
Request a meeting with the pastor or a leader.
At a larger church, ask for an elder or a pastor on staff. Come with real questions, kindly but directly. Here are good ones to bring.
Be firm on the essentials, the deity and work of Christ, the gospel, the authority of Scripture, and gracious on the genuine gray areas. A church solid on the core but differing from you on a disputable point may still be a good home.
Don't write a church off for a thin statement of faith alone. Follow up, ask, and let their answers fill in what the page left out.
Is it the Word and Christ, or a personality, a political cause, an experience, a production? What sits at the center tells you almost everything.
Both inside the body and outside it. Grace and truth should be visible in how the church loves its own and welcomes the stranger.
Take everything you hear back to the Word yourself. No checklist, pastor, or ministry replaces the Bible open in your own hands.
Turn this checklist into a simple scored worksheet, The GOOD Test. Answer as you research and visit, and see where a church lands, strong, good, caution, or concern. Take it on your phone, or print a copy to fill in by hand.
This is only a helpful tool, by no means exhaustive, and never a replacement for the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you are seeking the Lord, He will guide you, even a new or young believer, faithfully and tenderly. Sometimes a church will not be exactly what you expected, and that is okay. Listen to His leading above any score on a page.
Think of this as a way to walk in with good questions and a clearer sense of where a church stands, nothing more. The Spirit who lives in you is the one who truly leads you home.
"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together."
Hebrews 10:24-25Pray as you look. The Lord who calls you to His people will help you find them.