What Should I Look For In a Church?

There is so much disappointment and disillusionment with the church.

Have you ever had a friend or a family member say something like, “Why should I go to church? I don’t really get anything out of it.” Or, “It really doesn’t make a difference for me one way or another when I go. I can have a relationship with God on my own.”

Could things like this be said so often because what we are slapping a label on and calling church is not what God had in mind and not what God designed? 

When we read about the church in the New Testament, we never read of believers saying it was irrelevant. The testimony of the church was not that the gathering left them unchanged and indifferent.

At great cost, believers remained committed to the gathering, even at the risk and cost of their lives, they continued to meet.

That sounds different then, “I don’t get anything out of it,” doesn’t it? 

Have we lost sight of God’s design of His church and in the process become those who have, “a form of godliness, although they have denied its power?” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, 2 Tim. 3:5)

We need a revolution that returns to its roots. 

So, let’s re-look at ground zero of the Church. 

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. ”

— (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Acts 2:42-47)

Right in that short description we see so much! We see: 

  • Devotion to the Word (the apostles teaching being Scripture to us)

  • Daily fellowship

  • Devotion to prayer

  • Unmistakable activity of the Spirit (signs and wonders and miracles)

  • Radical Generosity (these people left the tithe in the dust!)

  • Praise to God 

  • Salvation Growth

What if there is more to this passage than meets the eye? What if this passage doesn’t just exist to report the outcomes of what God did or to envision us as to what God can do…but what if this passage actually reveals the practices that lead to the outcomes that we wish were true in our churches today? 

When we planted Church of the Front Range, God gave us a vision of a revolution that returns to its roots, one that: 

  • Rights what is wrong in the world, praise in place of perishing

  • Revives what is dying in us, passion in place of complacency 

  • Reclaims what is lost in the church, power in place of impotence

As we sought God on how to pursue this revolution, He showed us intersections of acceleration, intersections of the following: 

  • Word & Spirit

  • Worship & Prayer

In other words, God showed us that the revolutionary ends that the early church saw are very related to the means the church lived at its roots: a people devoted to the Word and the Spirit, to worship and to prayer. 

Have you ever noticed that when a house of God has both Word and Spirit, or worship and prayer, there is a palpable difference in the presence and activity of God there? 

I think many could genuinely say they have. But, why?

It’s because in petition, we plead with God for the breakthrough that is not yet, and in praise, we thank Him for what already is, both who He is and what He has done.  

To put it simply, God is a God who answers when we ask, opens when we knock and allows those who seek Him to find Him. For more breakthrough, we need to pray for more breakthrough.  

But also, why would God be moved to be gracious to those who do not praise Him and thank Him and testify for what He has already done? 

Bring praise and prayer together and buckle up. God moves. Yet, it’s so rare to see these together today.

Similarly, what about the acceleration at the intersection of Word and Spirit?

Is God moved by someone who will only accept God’s timeless truth, as recorded in the Scripture, but is not willing to listen to Him, to obey all He says by His Spirit today? 

We have half the church or more saying to God, “I’m going to apply your timeless truths to my life, but I’ll say when and where, and I’ll be the one deciding everything else.” It’s offensive to God.

Conversely, is God moved by someone who is all about the Spirit but neglects His Word? No. Of course not. 

This is why we see such an acceleration of the Spirit of God where Word and Spirit come together. But again, it’s so rare to see these together these days.

Why? I think if we are honest, a lot of it comes down to preferences and personalities. 

There are some people who are willing to step into joy for what already is (worship people), but don’t want the burdensome mantle of crying out for what is not (prayer people). 

Likewise, it’s rare to find the Word and Spirit being embraced together as well. Have you ever noticed the uptight Word people often do not like the wind of the Spirit blowing where He blows, bringing what feels uncontrollable and beyond their comprehension into their churches? Or have you noticed how often those who love the spontaneity of the Spirit neglect the rigidity and exactness of the Word of God? 

How tragic when we’ve pieced and parceled out God’s design for His church according to our personalities. “All the intuitive, feeler, leave-your-options-open people come over here to the Spirit church and all the objective, tough-minded, schedule-it-out people come over here to the Word church.”

And in the end neither have as much of the Word or Spirit because of it.

Both the Spirit and the Word are saying, “Don’t accuse me of being just that!”

To get back to our roots and God’s design of His house so that praise replaces perishing, power replaces impotence and passion replaces apathy, we need to be a people of worship and prayer, Word and Spirit. 

God’s design for His church was not meant to be a spiritual buffet, some picked if preferred and some left. But also, God's design for His church is not supposed to be portioned out in little mediocre doses either. 

We have a lot of that going on – a little bit of God’s standard for worship, a little bit of what the Spirit wants to do, a little bit of the Scripture here and there and a little bit of prayer, and it’s not powerful at all. 

We need to abandon controlling the portions and get back to ALL of ALL.

At the smallest portion size, there is a version of Christianity out there right now that is just a small amount of each: worship, prayer, Word and Spirit. That is what we would call complimentary Christianity. It’s a Christianity that compliments your life, making your life a little bit better. 

There is another brand of Christianity that serves up a little bigger portion of some or all, perhaps 50% or more of each of these (worship, prayer, Word and Spirit). You feel challenged in worship there. You feel challenged by the teaching there. You feel stretched a little in the things of the Spirit there. You get the idea. This is challenging Christianity. It cuts out the parts most offensive to our flesh and off putting to our pride, while still spurring us along in other areas, the areas we actually want to be spurred along in. In short, it’s motivational speech Christianity. 

But, biblical Christianity was and is neither complimentary nor challenging.

It is costly. 

It doesn’t portion control God, as God does not tell us to worship Him with some of our heart and some of our mind and some of our strength, some of time, in some of the ways God calls us to worship Him in His Word. 

No. True, biblical, revolution-returning-to-its-roots Christianity is ALL Worship. 

Re-read the commands of worship in the Psalms and imagine doing all that at church. It’s costly! 

Same with the Word. Can we portion control God with His word and expect Him to be thrilled to show up in biblical proportions when we’re clearly ashamed of the Bible itself? No.

But, ALL Word is costly. 

When we teach the full counsel of God's Word, even the culturally unacceptable parts, it starts to cost. When we obey all of God’s Word and not just some, it is costly. Same with prayer and same with the Spirit. A life of prayer is costly. Accepting all of the Spirit is costly to our pride and understanding. Following the Spirit and saying YES to ALL He calls us to do often turns out to be costly as well. 

Yet, biblical Christianity is this cross-carrying, daily-dying breed of Christianity, and if we want a revolution that returns to its roots, it’s what we need to get back to. Worship and Prayer. Word and Spirit. And not just some here and there, we need to get back to ALL-ALL. 

How many of us are moved to carry on a conversation and spend time with those who don’t listen? None of us, that is who. 

Think about this. God speaks how? By His Word and by His Spirit. 

So when we turn away and tune out from either of those sources of His speaking, we are going to see a decline in God’s presence and activity in our midst.

© 2022 Shane Farmer, Rebekah Layton. All rights reserved.