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5 Great Qualities to Look for in a Church
By Julie | January 5, 2009
Yesterday, as I sat in church, I thought over my family’s 2008 church experiences. In the beginning of the year, Marc and I were having a difficult time in the church we’d been a part of for 4 1/2 years. In April, we finally got the courage to discuss our concerns with church leadership. When it was over, we felt that leadership had told us we were no longer welcome there. We were pretty heartbroken over it, and knew we needed to find another church. We went to many different churches. Then, Marc was invited to a Bible study at the church we attend now. We’ve been going regularly ever since, and have been blessed to be able to see friends and meet incredibly nice people. From our experience I’ve found several qualities I like in churches, qualities I always want my church to have.
1. Mixed Music: Hymns and Modern / Contemporary Music: The first thing I noticed that was different about our current church is that they sing a mixture of hymns and modern music. Our last church only played music you’d hear on the radio, and they made it sound exactly like the radio. While I liked the music there, I find it a nice change to have more of a mix at church once a week. The church we attend now does not use instruments, it’s all a cappella and beautiful. One person’s voice is not showcased more than another, but 4 or 5 voices harmonize beautifully, leading a room of around 300 people to join in. They do have solos or duets that occasionally use instruments, but not when the entire congregation is singing. It’s a unique experience once a week.
2. Use of Modern Media: We’ve seen funny clips / videos at church. They’ve created videos using people in the church; most of them are quite funny. One time last summer, members of the youth group went downtown to interview people about their perceptions of God and church. They played some of the interviews during a sermon; it was very eye opening. Another sermon the speaker wanted to use a song to make his point. He played the song, and the congregation read the lyrics on the overhead while it played, by the end, several of us were moved to tears by the message. Their sermons are online! When Marc’s grandma passed away we were out of town for church, but still able to listen to that weeks sermon when we got home. But, more simply, as the sermon is given, words are put on the overhead to accent the point. Sometimes the message is written in a sentence, sometimes an entire Bible verse is displayed. The visual prompts make it easier to stay interested and follow along, and make it more fun. Here is an example of a video that was used yesterday during the sermon:
3. Financial Accountability: Every week the bulletin has a section called “contribution update.” It tells the annual budget, the weekly budget, the year to date giving, and giving last week. Though I didn’t think about it while we were going there, I cannot recall a single time our last church revealed anything about their giving. I don’t mean to say they were doing anything wrong, but it is nice to have those figures presented without any thought, or inquiry on my part. I rarely even pay attention to the money stats, but I like knowing I can if I want too.
4. Shared Leadership: Our last church was run by a family; this wasn’t a big deal in the beginning. But, when problems arose we had no one to go who was not in “the family”, literally. The church we are in now has elders, who are unrelated to each other. The minister and the youth minister are unrelated. I don’t have to fear partiality if an issue were to arise. Also, this minister seems to “share” leadership with the congregation. The church has many “Small Groups” that meet regularly. These are groups of believers in the church, meeting for study, fellowship, and to build community. But the ministers could not possibly oversee them all. They are trusting that the people involved will be mature enough to handle the groups. And my favorite part, several sermons our minister has turned over to other people. Those people completely give that week’s sermon. Some weeks the minister was there as well, a couple weeks he had someone give the sermon while he was on vacation. It is refreshing to have another viewpoint, and to hear someone else’s stories!
5. God Shows Up! This is the absolute most important for me. I have had so many times I’ve been struggling in some area of my life, and really needed answers. Then, in church on Sunday, something in the sermon would touch on exactly what I needed to hear. It’s like God saying, “Psst, Julie, this is for you, so pay attention.” It happens most weeks in some way, and others tell me it happens for them too. Though we are all facing different obstacles, from the same sermon we get the insight and encouragement we need. It’s not because of the minister either, he doesn’t know what the 300 people sitting in church each week need. But, it does happen because the minister, or the people who are speaking, are allowing themselves to be used by God. I’m happy to say it is not unique to only the church we attend. I experienced it in several churches this year. However, when we started to feel problems in our former church, we didn’t feel God in the sermons very often. I don’t think this is necessarily a result of that pastor, I think the unresolved issues we were feeling were blocking God. But, when those issues were dealt with, even though the outcome was not what we wanted, God showed us so much insight at each of the churches we attended. It’s the biggest blessing I’ve ever received from attending church, and that’s saying a lot, because we’ve been very blessed by our attendance.
Topics: Faith, Life and Living, Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »
January 5th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Sounds like you found a good place to be. It sounds a lot like my church. I go to a Church of Christ, and they are pretty much all the same. they are all independent though so it is possible to find differences from one to the next.
Our church is decent for what we are looking for. We are in a predominantly catholic area so our options are kinda limited.
Glad you found someplace you that fits your needs so well.
)
January 6th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
The church we’ve been going to is a branch of a Church of Christ too. I bet being in a Catholic area would make it more difficult. We’re pretty fortunate, there seem to be a lot of different churches and a lot of different denominations. It’s interesting to go to the different ones.