Brothers Bayly

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Thursday, 03 July 2008

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May the Lord bless your work, this would be very helpful indeed; my church is very near to the University of Georgia, and we have a similarly large percentage of people whom the Lord will scatter throughout the nation (and world) in the rather near future.

A few thoughts:
- check the website; make sure the church either lacks a website or has one where the self-promotion doesn't rise to nausea levels
- check if the pastor and/or elders are actually qualified for their positions (including the fact that they are men) -- wait, I just reminded Tim Bayly that women pastors are a bad thing, nevermind...
- if the church posts text or audio copies of the sermons, listen to them. The proper examination of example teaching would be a whole chapter unto itself, but one major point is whether the pastor addresses the sins of his congregation.

May the Lord richly bless you with clarity of thought and discernment, and good stewardship of the precious gift of time you have been given.

Grasping for a quick answer to give a clue as to where to look first, I have sometimes suggested looking to see if the church has an evening service. If they don't it doesn't mean they might not be a great church, but if they do, it is at least a good indicator for looking more closely. It says something about their sense of the Sabbath and the importance of public worship.

Tim,

I'm excited for this book. I've got friends moving all over the place all of the time and a work like this one would be of great use to the body! Em and I will keep you before the throne.

One benchmark you could use is, "does this church have ministries for which you have a 'knack' and in which you could serve?" What I mean is that if one's passion is, say, for working with seniors, then (all other things held equal) it would be sensible to find a church which had a ministry focus in this area.

(On that basis, when I next have to find a church, I will probably look for one which has a strong student mission and ministry core; as that has become an enthusiasm of mine in the last few years).

Ross, why not join a church for the exact opposite reason? Why not go where your gift doesn't exist? Why not find a church thats weakness would be met by your strength?

Fair point, but "been there, done that". The end result of going to a church whose weak suit lay in the area of my strong suit, was that my keen desire to contribute in my strong suit was carefully ignored, and I was dumped instead into a particular service area because no-one else was prepared to do it; and I ended up being thoroughly taken for granted as a result.

Thats too bad. If what you say is true, I suspect we will have more and more churches which have little need with stockpiles of gifts and churches that have great need with no hope of relief.

Here's another one, somewhat tongue-in-cheek:

Right after the benediction, hit your stopwatch and see how long it takes for the parking lot to clear.

Keith,

With that criterion - I am not sure whether my church would fail miserably or pass with flying colors! It depends upon which result you're looking for - you didn't say.

Kamilla

It depends on why the people are staying or leaving; the fellowship hall might be at another location, the preacher might have just given them the scare of their lives, the ladies' gossip club might meet after service in the same building, the building might be a rental where the congregants are ushered away ipso pronto by an elder to avoid violating the rental agreement... but there's also churches where there's no extenuating circumstances and the congregation scatters like the four winds as soon as is socially acceptable so as to most efficiently dispense with the obligation of being in the presence of the Lord and one another.

If you want a real test, here would be mine:

1) Does anyone notice that you are a visitor? Does everyone notice that you are a visitor and welcome you?

2) Does anyone invite you for lunch?

If everyone knows you're a visitor, and several people invite you for lunch, you've found a church that is a community, as it should be.

Ross,

May I note that I was once at a church where my strongest (in my estimation) gifts were not needed, and which asked me to serve in several ways that were not very aligned with my (self-perceived) strengths; the experience was both humbling and sanctifying, and I look back on it as a great benefit.

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