Church Hunting

When I woke up this morning, I was a little anxious about the morning ahead.  I mean, church hunting isn't exactly my favorite past time.  Thankfully, our friends and family have been very supportive during this process.

One friend recently directed me to an article written by John MacArthur about looking for a new church.  He likened the church search to house hunting.  You've got to find a church that fits your style and feels comfortable and is in a great location.  But more importantly, the church has to have a good foundation, a solid structure, and functioning parts.  Thus, there's a lot to consider when looking for a new church besides who is friendly or what pastor preaches well.  Unless you're willing to repeat your church hunt in the next few years, you've got to be cautious and choose wisely.

Today we visited a church that I literally drive by 3-4 times a week on the way to my parents' house.  Over the years, we've watched the church expand into its new buildings.  We've read the catchy sermon titles on their sign.  And we've even witnessed the church's name change.  So I was kind of interested to actually walk inside.

We were pleasantly surprised.  Just about every person we came into contact with greeted us with a smile, a handshake, and an introduction.   We didn't even make it in the front door before someone came out to greet us and lead us around their campus.  It's no wonder that the church congregation has grown from 80 to 200 people in the last year.  Who wouldn't want to go back to such a friendly church? 

Anyway, from the friendliness, to the excellent preaching (you know a real expository preacher when he starts a new book of the Bible and only preaches on the first 2 verses!), to the worshipful music, today was really wonderful. Obviously, we can't know yet if this is going to be our new church home, because we still have to wait for the inspection and survive escrow.  But at least our church hunt has been productive.

And for those of you out there who are trying to market your church to church hunters like us, you should consider the house hunt model as well.  Remember to be friendly and welcome your guests.  Have your church presentable for each Sunday's "open house."  Know what you're talking about and be able to communicate the good features to your prospective church hunters.  And more importantly, be transparent and allow the church hunters to get a glimpse of what their prospective home is really like.  Hopefully, they'll see that the love of Jesus permeates in your house.