Some things we do not easily change: our bank accounts and our washing powder are two of these. We tend to inherit our choice of brands choosing the same as our families regardless of all the advertising and special deals designed to lure us away. We don’t like changing bank accounts because it is too much hassle and we don’t like changing our washing powder because it makes everything smell unfamiliar. There is something else we are not likely to change and that is our churches. Once we have settled into an area and committed to a church most of us stay put through thick and thin. We stay put through the hard times as well as the good because our churches are our families albeit dysfunctional and fallen and it is right and proper to stay put unless the dysfunction becomes something that could lead you astray from the gospel. So it is not often that Churches put together a sales pitch to advertise themselves to other Christians to come and join them but over the past four weeks the Churches in Lancaster have been doing just that to freshers newly arrived at university at an event called ‘Church Search’.
I confess I found this a slightly uncomfortable affair –it was a bit like putting together a pitch for Dragons Den or the Apprentice. Ten Churches all advertising their wares competing for new students whilst trying not to be competitive. However most of the students already knew what they were looking for and were listening out for key words: worship, community, family, and bible-based. The most common question I was asked was “what is your worship like?” This is of course a theological minefield but really meant, “Do you have extended time of music and singing?” The Churches all sounded very similar but living in Lancaster everyone knows each is quite distinctive even though all of them used nearly the same vocabulary to describe themselves.
It raises the question what should we look for in a Church? If we are new in town what matters? I fear that most of us look for the comfortable or familiar just like choosing what washing powder to use. We also go with the crowd – if there are a lot of people there it must be good. We go where we will get something out of it – students are given food, friendship and ‘fellowship’. We might enjoy the music or the teaching. But do we go to a Church to be served or to serve? Do we go somewhere to be built up and fed? Do we go somewhere that offers an encounter or worship experience week by week? Do we go somewhere that is engaged in reaching out? Sometimes we need a place where we can be served and cared for by our Church family, sometimes we need to be encouraged to serve, sometimes we are malnourished and must be fed, sometimes we are fat, lazy and indulgent and need to learn to exercise our faith. So what we need is a Church family that can draw all of this together and the only way that can be done is by proclaiming Christ.
My sadness during Church Search was that somehow in the middle of all the offers for lunch, training, worship and community Christ was not mentioned. It is so easy to think we are putting Him first but instead get caught up in our different expressions of faith.
So what do I advise students looking for a church in the middle of all the competing flavours of Church? The best I can come up with so far is this:
Do the leadership love Jesus and show this through faithful godly discipleship?
Is Christ proclaimed faithfully week-by-week?
Does this Church family rejoice in their salvation in Christ?
Is this Church family seeking to know Christ better through His word?
Is this Church family committed to following Christ and taking His Word seriously?
Is this Church family committed to making Christ known to others and engaging in that task?
If this is all truly in place then everything else will follow but maybe not immediately. It may mean going to a Church outside of your comfort zone, a different flavour from what you are used to but it will be a change worth making – even perhaps if you are not new to an area.