How to Find a Church Home

We’ve hunted for a new church home often over the years.

(Thank you, US Navy).

We’ve honed our experience into a few pointers some of you might find useful.

Prayer, of course, is the key ingredient and you should pray throughout the search.

Combine those prayers with these six things to consider when hunting for a church home.

1. Commitment to the Bible and the Lordship of Christ

We believe that being a Christian means fidelity to the truth of the Bible.

It also means a recognition that Jesus is Lord.

Those two factors are our nonnegotiables. If a church doesn’t reflect those two points, we don’t want to attend.

2. Affiliations

We pay attention to the denominations in our new community, but they are not absolute guarantees of where we’ll settle.

To that end, we’ve attended churches in the following denominations: Lutheran, Missouri Synod Lutheran, Anglican, Calvary Chapel, Navy chapels (twice with Lutheran pastors) and one Independent Bible church.

We come from a liturgical tradition and are more comfortable in a congregation that corporately confesses sin on a regular basis.

We like to sing in the choir and I’m a musician, so the music is important to us.

I also like to celebrate the traditional holidays and therefore liturgical churches suit me better.

3. Current Family situation

What is your family situation?

During one move we specifically sought a church that had an active youth group. Ours sons were at an age when they needed devout peers.

As it turned out, the church we chose didn’t have a big youth group, but they were hiring a youth pastor the next summer when he graduated.

We went with that church. Ours sons ended up being mentored by one of the pastors in Bible study and it was very helpful in their spiritual walk.

(So don’t be hard over on what you think you need!)

When my husband was actively going to sea, it helped to be in a church with other Navy families.

That Anglican church, pastored by an Army reservist, understood my needs and stepped in time and again.

Since we always lived far from our family, it helped to be in congregations that had many different ages.

Our children regularly were “adopted” and loved by grandparent types, which was very helpful and I’m grateful.

We like smaller churches where people can get to know us and where we can minister.

Multicultural churches are an added plus as well. We loved eating sashimi at our Hawai’ian church!

4. Friends

It can be helpful if your friends suggest churches they’ve attended in your area, or that you join theirs.

My husband befriended a woman at his new job in one town and she recommended the church she attended. We joined it (and became good friends with her).

A non-church going friend suggested Calvary Chapel in Monterey to us with the words, “They believe like you do.”

They did, so we joined the church.

When we left that Calvary Chapel, the pastor advised us to try the sister church at our next duty station. “David needs you.”

That’s where we attended the first Sunday in town. When we shook the pastor’s hand we said, “Bill sent us. He said you need us.”

David laughed. “What does Bill mean?”

We didn’t know, but we ministered at that church home for four years.

5. Pregnancy Counseling Centers and other parachurch ministries

Several times I’ve enlisted the assistance of Pregnancy Counseling Center directors to choose a church home.

We figured we’d start with churches that shared some of our core values before widening the search.

The other advantage with using a referral from PCCs is, they know what churches will look after the lambs they send for help.

Churches that minister outside of their walls are churches interested in the Kingdom of God at large.

Other parachurch ministries could be good places for clues. BSF, Precepts Bible studies, Awanas, Prison Fellowship programs, to name a few, will give you a sense of the church’s heart for the world.

6. Holy Spirit

Here’s the wild card in the mix.

The leading of the Holy Spirit should be central to the new church home search.

Sometimes your church no longer fits your needs or perhaps it becomes clear you need to worship God in a different setting.

Some people, unfortunately, discover they’re in a toxic (un)spiritual environment. (Don’t throw away God! Just find a new church!)

The Holy Spirit moves where He does for purposes we frequently don’t understand.

So, if the Holy Spirit indicates a surprising church home, try it and see.

In my case, I had a bad experience at one church and didn’t trust the leadership anymore. I knew I needed to go elsewhere.

The “interim” church was Bible based but the service did not meet my personal needs.

While attending a Billy Graham Crusade training, I bowed my head to pray with the high school auditorium before we began.

Three sentences into the prayer, I opened my eyes and looked to see who was praying in such a rich way.

This pastor’s prayer demonstrated an intimate relationship with God I hadn’t heard recently. I made a beeline after the training to learn what church he attended.

I felt uncomfortable attending the type of church he pastored, but when I discussed it with my husband and a close friend, they both suggested I try it.

That church is the one I dream about and so often wish I was back with all these years later.

I never would have guessed.

But the Holy Spirit knew what I and my family needed.

Thanks be to God.

What do you look for when it’s time to find a new church home?

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