How Do I Choose A Good Church To Attend?
It's important to attend a church regularly, but be very careful which church you choose!
Not all churches are really "Christian", even if they use words like "Jesus", "Christ" or "Christian" in their names.
A church is truly Christian only if everything they do is completely based on the Bible, completely centered around Jesus Christ (exactly as he is described in the Bible), and completely aimed at worshipping God. Far too many churches today are centered around people, or programs, or events, or even the pastor, or the band. Even worse, some churches are only interested in your money, and have no real interest at all in 'you'.
That is not the way Jesus Christ designed his church to be.
According to the Bible, the "church" is simply a group of people who are followers of Christ ( What is a Christian? ), in the sense that they do everything he said to do, in the Bible. In fact, the Bible itself has many warnings about "false teachers", "false prophets" ( What is a 'prophet'? ), and other fake people, who pretend to be Christian, but really they are not.
It also warns about people who preach something that is not the Bible: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!". ( Galatians 1:8-9 ). Thus, any church that preaches things that are different from what the Bible says, is not a Christian church and should be avoided. In fact, such a 'church' is actually cursed, according to the Bible.
Some churches seem nice at first glance: perhaps the pastor preaches nice sermons that are warm and accepting, telling you about all the wonderful things that Jesus will do for you, and how good it is to be human. Jesus and his disciples did not preach messages like that. If people like going to that place just to hear things that sound nice or are pleasing to them, then it's the wrong place. If the preacher never talks about sin, heaven, hell, repentance, and Jesus dying on the cross for your sins, then it is very definitely the wrong church! That's the type of message Jesus and his disciples preached.
That's not the church you should be going to! Rather, find a church where the preachers take a lot of time just preaching exactly what the Bible says, both good and bad, exactly as God wrote it, and explaining it carefully. This is often called "sound doctrine" ( What is 'sound doctrine'? ).
The Bible says exactly that: "the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." ( 2 Timothy 4:3-4 )
Another key problem is when the songs they sing in a church are all happy melodies, about people and their feelings and experiences as christians, and about love and good things in their lives: that's not what songs are supposed to be biblically. They are supposed to be about God: they are supposed to be about praising him, about who he is, what he is, his power, his glory, his majesty, and his justice. The songs are to worship him. In the Bible, the book of Psalms is full of songs that praise and worship God. They type of church that you choose should be one that sings praise to God, and worships him.
If you can't find such a church near you, then find one on the Internet, and participate regularly. You can also use the 'Contact Us' button to get in touch with us, and we'll try to help you find a church in your area. Make sure you provide your location (country and city)! We'll try to help you find a good one.
Bottom line: Beware! There are many non-biblical churches out there, eager to grab you and your money! Take great care to make sure you are in a truly Biblical church.