I realize that churches are made up of imperfect people and are led by imperfect pastors and that each sound New Testament church, like each individual Christian, will have its strengths AND weaknesses, its own set of problems. I have been saved for 34 years and have been a member of five churches, have pastored one church and planted two others, and have preached in hundreds of churches in many countries and have communicated with thousands of church members in various congregations; so I KNOW there is no perfect church. As the old saying goes, if you ever find the perfect church please do not join it or you would mess it up!
That being said, it is equally true that a church should be biblically based and Spirit-filled and should be striving to obey every detail of the faith once delivered to the saints (1 Timothy 6:13-14; Jude 3). Following is a list of some of the things I personally look for in churches that I recommend (ALTHOUGH I DO NOT NECESSARILY REQUIRE ALL OF THESE THINGS).
I also realize that a church can be “right down the line” in doctrine and practice and still be lacking before the Lord (i.e., Revelation 2:2-5). Howbeit, our readers will certainly understand that we are not in a position to judge the heart and innermost motives of churches on our directory, the vast majority of which we have never even visited. The best we can do is measure some of the key areas of concern, as follows.
BIBLE VERSIONS. We look for churches that use only the King James Bible. The use of the KJV is not merely a preference, but is a conviction. The leaders are convinced that the text underlying the KJV is the preserved Word of God, and the KJV, as an accurate translation of the preserved text, is the preserved Word of God in English and that the modern versions are founded upon a corrupt Greek text. If non-English speaking, the church uses a sound Received Text-based translation if one is available, and if one is not available in that particular language, it is doing all it can to have such a translation produced. At the same time, we do not support Peter Ruckman and we do not recommend churches that support Ruckman or follow his peculiar doctrines, such as the King James Bible itself being given by divine inspiration and being advanced revelation beyond the Hebrew and Greek, that salvation will be by works during the Tribulation, etc. (See the article Peter Ruckman under the Bible Version section of the End Time Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site.)
DOCTRINE: We look for churches that are Baptist and non-Reformed (not following TULIP theology and amillennial prophecy). While we have many Calvinist friends and we praise the Lord for their faith in God, we cannot in good conscience recommend such churches because we do not want to see people trained in a theology which we believe is unscriptural. Our doctrinal position is described in Way of Life Literature Statement of Faith. For more information about particular doctrines that we hold see the Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity.
POLITY: We look for churches that are unaffiliated with a denominational structure. There is no pattern in the New Testament for the establishment of intra-church unions or associations, and we do not believe that men have the biblical authority to form such associations or to participate in them. We look for churches that do not accept pedobaptist and other unscriptural baptisms and that practice close or closed communion with unleavened bread and nonalcoholic wine. We do not accept the Baptist bride position on the church. (See the article "Are You a Baptist Brider" under the Church section of the End Time Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site.)
LEADERSHIP: We look for churches that are ruled by pastors as opposed to deacons or trustees, and whose pastors are qualified according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 (exemplary family, no divorce, personal godliness, financially responsible, good testimony in the community, etc.)
EVANGELISM: We look for churches with a zealous soul-winning vision and ongoing efforts to reach every part of the community with the Gospel. We reject “quick-prayerism,” which is characterized by pushing for large numbers of professions and counting mere professions as salvations regardless of whether or not there is any evidence thereof, and the failure to preach and require biblical repentance for salvation. (See the articles "Easy Prayerism," "Does Salvation Make a Difference," and "Pentecost vs. Hylescost" under the Evangelism section of the End Times Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site.)
MISSIONS: We look for churches that have a worldwide vision of church planting and the preaching of the Word of God, where missions is not merely another "program" the church can boast about, but missions is truly the heart and soul of the church. This will be evident in many ways: (1) the pastor’s life and emphasis will evidence his zeal for world missions; (2) the lifestyle and burden of the faithful families will evidence a zeal for world missions; they will love to support and entertain missionaries, to communicate and pray for missionaries; to visit missionaries; to dedicate their children to be missionaries; (3) a church’s missionary zeal will also be evident in the lives of the young people in that many of them will catch the vision and heart of missions and will dedicate their lives for this purpose. Churches which are truly missionary-minded produce missionaries.
MUSIC: We look for churches with no Contemporary Christian Music; no commercial worldly-rhythm, syncopated background tapes produced by ecumenists, Charismatics, and the worldly CCM crowd; no use of Charismatic-produced "praise" choruses. We believe spiritual music is much more, though, than merely avoiding Christian rock music and the grosser forms of CCM. Many churches that avoid CCM are caught up with other types of music that are shallow, repetitive, frequently-unscriptural, emotion-oriented, with an over-emphasis on rhythm--such as the contemporary Southern gospel music of the Gaither variety. I realize that many men disagree with me on this, but I am convinced that much of the Southern gospel music is little more than fleshly entertainment. I started my preaching ministry in Florida, Tennessee, and other parts of the South, and it was very common to see worldly Christians flock to Southern gospel concerts who otherwise did not live faithfully for the Lord. They loved the entertainment provided by that style of music, but they cared nothing for holiness. That spoke volumes to me about the nature of such music. (See the article "Southern Gospel Music" under the Music section of the End Times Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site.) We look for churches in which the music program is led by godly people (we do not believe it is proper for a woman to lead music in a mixed congregation) who are Spirit-led, who have genuine personal convictions about the nature of spiritual music and who understand the danger of worldly "Christian" music, and who are spiritually consistent. I am finding that in many churches a semblance of spiritual music is still retained in the services, but the music leaders and/or musicians and pastors use carnal music in their personal lives. That is a form of hypocrisy and compromise which will rob the church’s music program of God’s blessing and power and such a schizophrenic practice will soon break down and give way to the incorporation of carnal music in the services themselves. There is an intense war being waged today for the heart and soul of Bible-believing churches, and one of the Devil’s most effective Trojan horses is music.
HIGH STANDARDS FOR ALL CHURCH WORKERS: We look for churches that have high Bible standards for church workers (1 Tim. 3:8-13; 1 Cor. 4:2; 2 Cor. 8:18-21; Eph. 6:21; Col. 1:7; 4:7,9; 2 Tim. 2:2). Anyone can attend the church (except heretics which have been rejected -- Titus 3:10-11), but those who assume positions within the church are representatives not only of the Lord Jesus Christ but also of the church itself; and the church’s testimony is judged by the lives of its workers. We have given a sample set of written standards for church workers at our web site. See the articles "Why Have Standards for Church Workers" and "Requirements for Church Workers" under the Church section of the End Times Apostasy Database at the Way of Life web site -- http://www.wayoflife.org/
YOUTH PROGRAM: We look for churches that, if they have a "youth program" as such, is not characterized by constant entertainment and does not encourage young people to be worldly "cool," but rather is characterized by training the young people to be godly and to dedicate their lives wholly to the service of Jesus Christ. The church has no biblical mandate to entertain young (or old) people; the mandate is to teach them all things which Jesus Christ has commanded us to obey in His Word (Matt. 28:18-20). The mandate is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus defined a disciple as one who has rejected the world and given up his own life for the will and work of Christ (Mark 8:34-35). A disciple of Christ is one who has lost his life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s sake, meaning his life is characterized by zeal for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. The leaders of biblical youth programs do not relate to young people on the level of a worldly "cool" and "hip" approach, but are mature and godly and spiritually discerning people who can lead the young people in God’s perfect will and can make disciples of the youth. The youth leaders should know more about the Bible than about sports, more about doctrine than talk radio, more about prayer than television, more about a burden for souls at home and abroad than fashion! This comes back to having high standards for church workers. If youth workers are worldly, spiritually lackadaisical, and lacking in moral discernment, the youth will be the same. Many churches, even those that retain a fundamentalist profession and that do not promote Christian rock and some of the more obvious aspects of the ecumenical program, are caving into the ungodly philosophy of youth ministry that says youth must be reached with their "own music," their "own fashions," their "own fun," etc. This is utterly unscriptural. It is also unreasonable. Whatever youth are won WITH they are won TO. It is better than a church have no "youth program" at all than to have a worldly one. We believe the entire concept of segregating young people continually into their own groups and isolating them from adults is unscriptural and counterproductive to the will of God. Our churches have adopted this pattern from the world, and it is something that needs to be reconsidered in light of the Word of God. In former times young people were not so segregated but intermingled continually with adults in every facet of life, and they were better off for it. When young people are segregated into groups of their own peers and allowed, even encouraged, to form their own culture and are largely isolated from adults (such as in modern educational systems), they are literally the blind leading the blind (Prov. 22:15)!
WE NEED YOUR HELP
Please take a few minutes to look at the directory at the Way of Life web site, and if you know of good fundamental Baptist churches that are likeminded with us but that are not already listed, ask a church officer to fill out our Questionnaire so that we can add it to the list.