What do people look for when they are wanting to get married? What do they want to find in a spouse? Some look for money—or at least for the potential to make money. Some look for good looks—or at least for someone who is not completely unfortunate looking. Some look for personality—someone who is fun, kind and easy to get along with.
There are certainly a lot of things that are important to us to find in a future spouse, but can I tell you that none of these things listed so far matter? In the grand scheme, things like money, looks, personality, etc. don’t matter!
When looking for a spouse, what matters is—will this person help me serve the Lord and get to heaven? That’s all that matters! God put me on this earth to serve and glorify Him (Isa. 43:7; Eph. 2:10; 1 Cor. 10:31), and Jesus longs for me to be in heaven with Him (John 14:3; 17:24). If the potential spouse that I find will not help me with this eternally important purpose, I need to keep looking!
Take that and apply that to those who are looking for a church. In the sea of religious division that exists today, finding the right church can be a challenge. So, what do people often look for when they are wanting to start going to church and find their church home?
Some look at the size—how many people are there? Some look at the demographics—what kind of people are there? Some look at the programs—what do they offer for me and my kids? Some look for impressive preachers—will they inspire me and keep me engaged? Some look for anonymity—can I just go to church, blend in and not be called on? Some look for return on investment—what will I get out of this?
There are certainly a lot of things that are important to folks when they are looking for a church (and many more could be added), but can I tell you that none of these things listed so far matter? In the grand scheme, things like size, demographics, programs, entertainment, etc. don’t matter!
When looking for a church, what matters is—will this church teach me only the truth of the Bible (without addition or subtraction or modification or modernization), help me to faithfully serve the Lord and get to heaven? If a church doesn’t teach salvation according to the Bible (Acts 2:37-41), recognize the unique nature of the Lord’s church (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4; 5:23), worship as authorized in the New Testament (John 4:23-24), organize itself according to the New Testament pattern (1 Tim. 3:1-15), and speak only the oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11), then I need to keep looking! I need to use the blueprint that God gave for His church in the New Testament and find the one that is built on that blueprint.
