3 Necessary Things To Look For When Finding A Good Church

This is from a note prepared for a member of the church who was moving. This is intended as pointers for someone who is saved and has had some basic grounding in the scriptures.

  1. They believe and preach the King James Bible (Proverbs 30:5-6; Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32).
    • We are not to correct the Bible, but rather let the Bible correct us.
    • Anyone going to the Greek or Hebrew to change what the text clearly says is to be avoided.
    • A good independent Bible-believing Baptist church is where you typically find people who hold the scriptures as the final authority on all matters of faith and practice.
  2. They believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus and his finished work when he died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third.
    • Anyone who takes away or adds anything to salvation by any means is to be avoided (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-6 and Galatians 1:6-9).
    • As a result of preaching the gospel, a church will seek to have its members involved in personal soul winning and supporting missionaries.
  3. They must believe that Jesus is coming again for His church (born again believers) before the tribulation (John 14:1-6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58).
    • Jesus will come again for His church. While the church is in heaven, God will deal with Israel and the world during the tribulation period.
    • At the end of the 7 year tribulation period, the Lord Jesus Christ will return to this earth and establish a literal, visible kingdom with His throne in Jerusalem.
    • He will rule on this earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:2-7). Anyone who does not believe this has to deny two-thirds of the prophecies in the word of God.

3 Things to Avoid

  1. Avoid politically correct churches. God and His word are not politically correct (Romans 2:4).
  2. Avoid false teachers and hero worshippers.
    • Avoid smooth talkers who always talk about the positive, but refuse to preach the negative (Isaiah 30:9-11; Romans 16:17-18)
    • Also, avoid any church involved in hero-worship (“respect of persons” in the Bible). You can spot them when they are always quoting a man rather than quoting and pointing you directly to the scriptures.
  3. Avoid Calvinistic (Sovereign Grace) churches.
    • John Calvin’s 5 Point Calvinism is unbiblical.
    • To see a full history of this error showing where it came from with the verses for and against this false system, see TheOther Side of Calvinism, written by Dr. Laurence M. Vance.

Sites that have church lists that you can check out and visit: