Is the practice of "looking for a good church" even scriptural???

The best church is the one I am visiting or gonna visit and the worst one is the one I am at or the one I just left. Right?

IDK the answer. I do know we are in a mess. It seems to me there is no local Sunday brick and mortar church that has a clue.

Hey brothers,

We are members of Christ's spiritual body, over which He is head and from Whom every joint is supplied and from that supply of grace can supply in the needs of others ( can minister )

Being a member of a congregation of believers does not make you a believer.
Being a member of Christ does not necessarily mean you will or should be a member of a congregation, knowing the days we are in.

What I would say and encourage all of us to do, is: " do not forsake the gathering together of the saints", whatever form that gathering may take, local congregations,home meetings, two or three in a coffee shop.....
so that we can benefit from the mutual encouragement received from the saints and also fulfil our ministry to one another.

Blessings,

Hey brothers,

We are members of Christ's spiritual body, over which He is head and from Whom every joint is supplied and from that supply of grace can supply in the needs of others ( can minister )

Being a member of a congregation of believers does not make you a believer.
Being a member of Christ does not necessarily mean you will or should be a member of a congregation, knowing the days we are in.

What I would say and encourage all of us to do, is: " do not forsake the gathering together of the saints", whatever form that gathering may take, local congregations,home meetings, two or three in a coffee shop.....
so that we can benefit from the mutual encouragement received from the saints and also fulfil our ministry to one another.

Blessings,

There are a lot of good churches, and unfortunately there are a lot of churches that are not so good. But God places us in the body where He desires us to be. If you are serious about obeying God, you will pray and ask Him where He desires you to fellowship, and I guarantee that assignment will be a good church. If you are where God wants you to be, and if you are determined to stay there, no matter what, until He tells you to leave, you will grow into maturity as a believer and become a pillar in the house of the Lord. But all of this is predicated on the idea that we are seeking after God and not our own desires.

by awakened
Is it even something God is wanting believers to do...to "find a healthy church"? Or should they just sit tight and wait for one to magically appear in their living room:-)

Most people do find freedom in their living rooms worshiping God and at the kitchen table studying the Word of God!! I know I have.

by awakened
I get the impression that a lot of wonderful believers are currently "unchurched" and again that is probably a terrible word to use from a theological standpoint.

Barna continued in the quote, "Yet the startling truth is that many of these people claim they are looking for a genuine, powerful encounter with God””but they just don’t find it in church."

Another great question to ask pastors is why many Christians think they can't have a genuine and powerful encounter with God in a church where they're supposed to have it??!! It's a sad state of affairs in the American church today.

God bless you, didn't mean to get on my soapbox!! LOL

To my understanding we're not called to "go to church" that phrase doesn't even make sense thinking of what (more properly "who")"the church" is.
What we're called to do is gather together in His name, under His headship as brethren. The biblical example for that is with the ecclesia in our local area.

It depends on what people mean when they say "We are looking for a good church", but the un-presumptuous response would be, i think, is to assume they are looking for a "place to fellowship and gather in His name."

I think we can easily project our own experiences into hard lines and sweeping statements towards the church and how we gather. For instance, if I live in a certain town, in a certain part of the country, and I have had bad experiences in fellowship, been hurt or wounded, witnessed leaders fall, churches split etc, then I might say "the church is corrupt everywhere" and now "house church is the only way from here on out". But that certainly is not the case with everyone, and it's more of a reactive decision rather than a Biblical one. It's very easy to slip into the mindset of "all churches are corrupt, or shallow, or under bad or man-centered leadership" but this is an unhealthy view. It polarizes and forms barriers in your heart, and you begin to view the hidden church as the elite, true, undefiled church, while all those shallow people who "attend church or go to church" in "Buildings" don't understand the new testament model". This I think is a slippery slope that we need to beware of. Jesus died for His Church, and we are Brethren together.

My family is actively becoming involved with a local church that has a building and it has been one of the biggest blessings to us in a long time. We wandered for a couple years after going out from a church that we were serving at for 10 years and it has been the hardest thing we have gone through. But it's so neat what the Lord is doing now in our lives. Our kids love sunday mornings at church, and the wednesday Bible club. I love the ministry to the men and am seeing discipleship take place actively in the men of the church. The women are doing the same. There is even a ministry that meets to encourages mom's in their calling, just like it says in Titus 2. There are conferences on creation, apologetics and prophecy all to equip and teach the body here in town. All of this happening in a local church, with a facility that can facilitate these different "gatherings in His name".

So, to answer your original question. YES, one should take the scriptures and carefully pray through as you move into a new fellowship, whether you were transferred in the military, moving to a new location for work or other reasons, or simply being called out of the fellowship you are in. Consider the leadership structure, examine the fruit, listen to the Word online if possible - test all things. Be vulnerable, be willing to extend yourself and serve others - it's not about me!

In His love,

Thank you brother for your response. I didn't think you were giving that impression, I was sharing some of my observations and experiences also and what I have witnessed. Yes, I think it is always good to keep our hearts hungry for the authentic, Christ-centered Biblical expression of the Church, and fight and contend in our own lives and sphere not to allow ourselves to settle into ritual, coldness or "going through the motions". Revelation 2-3 is evidence that the church can easily go adrift and need to be rebuked and called back to authenticity by her Head, the Lord Jesus. This is why we are so desperate and in need of His indwelling, incarnate life beating through us in our gatherings, our praying, our preaching and our fellowship. Unless we remain utterly hopeless towards ourselves and utterly dependent on him, we will (either as a formal group in a building our home fellowship setting) become cold, jaded, lifeless and drift away from the Biblical body organism as seen in scripture into another sanhedrin filled with dead men's bones.

Knitted together as joints and ligaments,

...then my question is this: how many are truly filled with the Spirit?

I think this is a very good point William has brought up.

Like Kevin said the actual meeting place is not the issue - although from my experience and in my opinion owning property, building buildings and having "paid staff" bring unnecessary distractions - what is important is that we are the Body of Christ, the Ecclesia meeting together in His name - it's not a meeting to invite the world to. And from scripture shouldn't we all be "filled with the Spirit"?

Another point -I live in Australia and maybe it's different here than where you are but people here (again, my experience) want to know "who's the leader" it's like there looking to a man. I believe we're to look to Jesus as the Leader in our meetings - if He's the Head surely He's the Leader.

"But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. "Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. "Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. "But the greatest among you shall be your servant. "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
Matt 23:8-12

Thanks for the conversation brethren

By the way Awakened - What's your name? :-)

Another point -I live in Australia and maybe it's different here than where you are but people here (again, my experience) want to know "who's the leader" it's like there looking to a man. I believe we're to look to Jesus as the Leader in our meetings - if He's the Head surely He's the Leader.

We are definitely to look to Jesus as the leader in our meetings (the mind of the Lord!)and follow the Holy Spirit's leading!

God bless,
Lisa

HI Awakened,

Simply an observation based on your quote from Kevin's post:
"...in need of His indwelling, incarnate life beating through us in our gatherings, our praying, our preaching and our fellowship. Unless we remain utterly hopeless towards ourselves and utterly dependent on him..."

...that that should be the identifying mark of any truly Spirit filled and Spirit led company of believers.

Blessings,