Church Shopping Guide

For the Discerning Shop​per

first things first

Why is it so bewildering?

Why are there so many alternatives, choices, or "brand names" when it comes to finding a church home?  Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Reformed, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Pentecostal, so-called "non-denominational," etc.  What gives?  Well, in the end of the day there are only a few major brands, but then among those brands there are splits over things as simple as carpet color or as big as Communion practice.

There are also the "fringe" churches which show up from seemingly nowhere.  The pop up almost weekly and then disappear.  Then there's the TV churches like the "faith healers" and the fast-talking, feel-good preachers, and all those self-proclaimed prophets and apostles and bishops all claiming to have signs and wonders to share...for just a love offering of $30 or more.

It's very perplexing, isn't it?

Should it be this frustrating?

No, it should not.  Finding a church home should be as simple as going to the church closest to your family, joining, and celebrating Christ and His cross.  Unfortunately, the American church experience is anything but simple.

Of course, how you go about finding your church home, this matters too.  It's really not a reflection of true discernment if you just look for a church that makes you feel good, has friendly people, uplifting music, etc.  Christianity is more than feelings, after all, and starting your search with your emotions leads to trouble in most matters, including church.

But it's also not good to make it purely about reason.  If your discernment is strictly about growth patterns, types and number of ministries, a church's financial condition, the quality of the building, the number of staff, etc. then you are letting your own thinking get in the way.

Fact is that church bodies know that most people choose their churches by emotions or reason, and they literally market their churches accordingly.  This is a product of living in a very consumerist society where "have it your way" is the nation's motto.  Churches want people, so they offer a "have it your way" Christianity.  It makes sense...it's very wrong...but it make sense.

A better alternative

Shop with Discernment

One of the great things about living in the United States is the old Latin concept of caveat emptor. LET THE BUYER BEWARE!  As a child of God, it is your job to discern.  Discern what, you ask?  To discern the "spirits," as John writes in 1 John 4:1.  "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world."  John doesn't say that only a few false prophets are about that are easily avoidable.  But he says that many false prophets have gone out and that testing (discernment) is required to know the difference between the true and false prophets.

But who cares, right?  If even the false prophet gets the basics right, isn't that better than not going to church at all?  Or maybe you think that, because of all the division, it's best to just avoid church as much as possible and worship the Lord in your own way.  But no, because the Scripture teaches us that we are not to "forsake the fellowship"? (Hebrews 10:24-25) because doing so leads to a shipwrecked faith, and what good is a shipwrecked faith?

Instead Christians are called to discern the teachings, to test the teachings of a particular church against the Scripture.

"But don't all churches teach essentially the same things?"  Absolutely not!  If all churches taught the same things, there would be no division.  The fact is that church bodies each teach differently about a whole lot of things because of how they read and interpret the Scripture.  And some churches don't even consider what the Scripture says at all.  A few don't even confess Christ.  And if you aren't sure about what is what when it comes to the differences,  caveat emptor !  BEWARE!  You could be led astray by a false church or false teacher.  And since this is about your eternal soul, you should be at least as discerning about your church home as you are a car purchase, a clothing purchase, or a new phone purchase!

We believe that to agree about the Gospel is more than agreeing to some generalities concerning Jesus or the Bible. There is no such thing as a “generic” Christianity.

The late Reverend Paul T. McCain

Much of western or American Christianity today is quite generic in nature.  What this means is that, apart from some vague confession of Jesus as Lord and Savior, not much else is believed or confessed.  But the Word of our Lord has very specific teachings (doctrines) that each Christian is called by God to believe.  What you believe about Baptism isn't up for grabs.  What you believe about the Lord's Supper isn't up to each individual to decide for him or herself.  The Lord says, "This is what I expect you to believe."  But because of the western draw for tolerance and just "getting along," many Christians have compromised horribly a right confession of faith, putting creature comforts, personal likes and dislikes, ambiance, style, and emotions ahead of sound teaching and bold confession.  This has caused the church great harm and led to great weakness in America.  We're too frightened to "say something wrong" or "hurt someone's feelings," so we don't speak, and we don't put the time into discerning between the spirits, testing by the Word of God what is true and what is false, heresy, or heterodoxy.

This must change, and every American Christian must repent of this attitude of indifference or unwillingness to discern.

Questions for the Discerning Church Shopper

01. Does the church believe, teach, and confess the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three Persons in one Divine Being, as the only true God?

This is fundamental to the one true Christian faith.  A rejection of the Trinity is a rejection of the one true God and no salvation is found in such a church or church body.  What churches reject Trinitarian theology?

02. Does the church believe, teach, and confess that all people are by nature sinful in the eyes of God?

Many churches deny the sinful nature.  A denial of the sinful nature distorts the salvation of Christ.  The denial of the sinful nature is an ancient heresy known as Pelagianism and their teaching is more about self-improvement.  What churches deny the sinful nature?

  • Seventh-day Adventists
  • Christian Science
  • Unity Churches
  • Mormonism
  • Armenianist churches (includes certain Baptist churches, 4-square Gospel churches, Keswickian churches)
  • Quakerism
  • Unitarian Universalists
  • Some Churches of Christ
  • Some Evangelical Free
  • Certain Baptist churches redefine the sinful nature as a "potential" for sin rather than a person having a nature that is sinful from conception.
  • Eastern Orthodox goes back and forth on their official doctrine of original sin.  Some teach it, others do not.
03. Does the church believe, teach, and confess that sinners are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ?

Here is where confessional Lutheranism shines, but where some churches start to really go off the rails.  We are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  For Lutherans, this means precisely what it says.  Here are some churches that aren't consistent.

  • American Evangelical churches (this isn't a denomination, but a movement.  Many churches in this movement -- some that are denominational -- are synergisticmeaning that salvation is through faith in Christ...AND...something.  Oftentimes it's a personal decision, a personal commitment, a promise to obedience, a sign such as tongues or miracles, or good works are part of the equation).
  • Roman Catholics (very boldly teach that salvation is through faith AND works)
  • Anabaptists
  • Eastern Orthodoxy
  • Methodists/Wesleyans
  • Certain Baptist churches that follow Armenian persuasion
  • Certain Holiness/Pentecostal churches
04. Do the sermons and teachings properly distinguish between God's Law (commands, threats, punishments) and His Gospel?

It's very easy to confound the Law and the Gospel or turn the Gospel into a new Law.  Far too many churches fall into this snare due to lack of study, discernment, and proper training.  You typically find a lack of Law in liberation/liberal churches...

  • ELCA, LCMC, and ALDoNA Lutheran churches
  • Methodists
  • Unitarian Universalists
  • Certain Presbyterian churches
  • American Baptist Church (body)

There are also churches that preach the Gospel as a new Law.  These are called Pietist churches and may include...

  • Covenant Church
  • Evangelical Free Church
  • Moravian Brethren
  • United Brethren/United Christian Church
  • United Methodist Church
  • Mennonite Brethren
  • Church of God/Church of God in Christ
  • Missionary Alliance/Foursquare Gospel/Total Sanctification church bodies
05. Is the congregation overly or underly friendly?

No one likes an overly pushy church where everyone is aggressively friendly or seems computer programmed to "bait and switch" every visitor.  Sometimes friendliness and being welcoming becomes an idol such that doctrine is compromised just to get people in the door.  Statements likes, "Doctrine divides, but the Bible unites," or "We all basically believe the same thing," is said out of ignorance or the person saying it is a liar.  Substance matters.

There are also some churches that close themselves off to outsiders.  A lack of love is as bad or worse than a fake love.  We discover such a church in Revelation 2:1-7, the Ephesian church.  They had pure doctrine, but they were so zealous that in holding pure doctrine, they abandoned the love they had for Christ and one another.

There must be a balance between sound doctrine and practice and love.

let's take a break...

What do you think?

Do you see how churches are not all the same?  Even among the main doctrines (articles) of the Christian faith, some churches have gone their own way and abandoned orthodox (faithful to the Scripture) teachings.  Yet, these churches are loved and attended by millions.  Scary to think!  But it takes us right back to discernment.  These are matters of eternal life and should be taken seriously.

I think it proper to talk about another approach that some churches have taken when it comes to doctrine.  They've come up with a way to divide between "major" and "minor" or "essential" and "non-essential" doctrines, as a way to minimize division and work for common unity.  The problem with this approach is that it assumes parts of the Bible are less important than others.  This is quite troubling.  After all, who decides what is essential and what is not essential?  The pastor?  A voting body?  A university professor or author?

Now, there are doctrines or articles which are necessary to believe for salvation such as the Trinity, the Two Natures of Christ, the Atonement, etc. But these articles which must be believed for salvation do not make other articles unimportant.  Everything that we believe, teach, and confess as Christians should be faithful to the Word of God because God is not divided.  This is why Jesus tells us to teach everything He has commanded (Matthew 28:19ff) and why Paul says that all Scripture is breathed out by God and to be used for teaching, rebuking, exhorting, etc.  Nothing is "non-essential" or "minor."

Further Discernment

Here is a list of a few more things to consider as you discern and wrap up your church shopping for today.

01. The Sacraments

Different churches number sacraments differently, and many churches, especially in America, do not have Sacraments at all.  It is worth looking at early American history to learn why this is.


  • The doctrine of Baptism is the single most divisive doctrine in the church.  Historically, the Christian church has always taught that baptism saves, regenerates, forgives sins, and gives the Holy Spirit.  However, thanks to certain events in history over the past few hundred years, more churches have rejected Baptismal Regeneration and turned baptism into a human work, an act of obedience, or unnecessary.  But the Scripture is clear that baptism saves (1 Peter 3:21), that we die to our old nature in baptism and are reborn to our Christlike nature (Romans 6), that it gives us entrance into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5), forgives sins (Acts 2:38-40) and that baptism is for people of all ages.  This is what the Christian church has taught historically since the Apostles.
  • The doctrine of the Lord's Supper is almost as divisive as Baptism.  As with Baptism, the Christian church has always taught that our Lord's true body and blood are given in the bread and wine offered in the Lord's Supper, and that it is given for the forgiveness of sins.  However, for many of the same reasons that Baptismal Regeneration was rejected, so too has the Sacramental nature of the Lord's Supper.  Today, in many churches, the Lord's Supper is little more than an appendage which they do from time to time -- but with no real reason.  They say it's to "Remember the Lord," but it connects them to nothing.  Even so, the Scripture is clear.  Jesus, in His own words says, "This [bread] IS my body...this [wine] IS my blood."  St. Paul reaffirms it in 1 Corinthians 10 where he says that the bread is a communion with Christ's body and the cup and communion with Christ's blood (the word can be translated communion, fellowship, participation, and denotes a very close, unbreakable connection).
  • Beyond these two sacraments, some churches may have more.  However, in the Lutheran church we only consider two (sometimes three) as sacraments because they are mandated by our Lord.  Sacraments in other churches, particularly in the Roman Catholic church, are defined differently.  They also include confirmation, matrimony, penance, holy orders, and divine unction as sacraments.
  • Most evangelical churches in America reject sacramental theology.  This includes any Armenian churches, any Anabaptist churches, "non-denominational" type churches, holiness churches, restorationist churches, four square churches, charismatic churches, and unionizing churches.  Mainline churches such as Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, and Methodists still hold to some sacramental theology, but it does vary.  Lutherans, Roman Catholics, the Anglicans, and Orthodox are the only church bodies which confess that the Lord's body and blood are given in the sacrament, though we each confess it in different ways.  Calvinist/Presbyterians say it's the Lord's body and blood, but only spiritually.
  • Absolution is another doctrine that many American churches reject outright.  They say, "Only God can forgive sins," and conclude that any pastor or person who says, "I forgive you" is sinning against the Lord.  However, in Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:18, and John 20:22-23, as well as throughout the Epistles, the authority to forgive sins is clearly given to the church and her ministers.  But again, this dates back to a time in early American church history and even into the 1600's where, out of pure reaction against the Roman Catholic church, many new church bodies formed rejecting Sacraments and Absolution.

02. The Doctrine of Soteriology (how we are saved)
  • There are two main camps regarding how we are saved.  The first is monergism and the second synergism.
  • The church officially adopted monergism centuries ago when they rejected a man named Pelagius who said that man cooperates with God to be saved.  Even so, there's been many nuances to monergism over the centuries.
  • We won't get into them now, but suffice to say that Calvinists believe God intentionally chooses people for salvation, and He intentionally chooses people for damnation.  This is monergism extreme.  Lutherans believe in a less extreme monergism which confesses that God chooses those whom He saves, but those being condemned are so because of their own unwillingness to believe.
  • On the other hand, synergism says that God only does some of the work of saving sinners, and that each individual must also do his part.  Typically this is what is known as "decision theology" or "cooperation theology," where the individual must decide to want to be a Christian, that he has enough good will in him to reach up to God.  Synergism was condemned in the early church, but it was brought back to life in 12th century Roman Catholicism, and later in Arminianism.  Arminius, a 17th century theologian, rejected John Calvin's notion that God predestines everyone for heaven or for hell and reawakened the ancient heresy.  Sadly, the heresy stuck and today many mainline and evangelical churches embrace synergism.
03. The Doctrine of Last Things (Eschatology)

Another doctrine that seems to have made great strides in American Christianity has to do with Eschatology or Last Things. As with the Sacraments and Soteriology, the church held to a particular view for most of her history, that is until someone in the modern era came along and rejected it all and started a whole new teaching. Millennialism, the notion that Christ will reign on earth for a literal 1,000 years, comes to us from a man named John Darby. Darby lived in the 1800's. During his life he wrote a version of the Scripture called the Darby Bible, and he came up with a new understanding of the Eschaton. He taught that the 1,000 years in Revelation 20:1-6 is meant to be taken literally, that Christ would reestablish an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem, that the temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt, and that a literal reading of Revelation is preferred over the traditional reading (as an apocalyptic text). He taught that all the prophecies in Revelation (and some of the prophecies in Daniel and Ezekiel) were futuristic (they have yet to be fulfilled). He also taught that the Jews or nation of Israel would still be saved, but by a different dispensation than that of the rest of the world (they don't need to believe in Jesus to be saved; God will save them differently).

American Evangelical churches bought into Darbism with little push back, and since then many of the TV evangelists have added more to his teaching.  Some have taken advantage of the Millennial view, drawing their people's attention to natural disasters, various wars, events in Israel, etc. as signs of the Lord's coming, and making a lot of money off it all.  Herbert and James Armstrong were huge believers in Premillennial Dispensational teaching and, for years, ran a television program where they explained the Book of Revelation using very graphic and scary drawings.  I remember watching this when I was a kid.

Lutherans are not Premillennial.  We instead embrace the historic/orthodox teaching of Amillennialism.  We believe Revelation is to be read as the people long ago would have received and read it.  They understood the symbols and numbers and it was all meaningful for them in their context.  The Roman Empire was out and about persecuting Christians.  There were false teachers and false Gnostic religions popping up all over the place tempting Christians to abandon orthodoxy and seek after false teachings.  There were endless martyrdoms, Christian families suffered from famine and sickness.  John wrote his apocalypse to those seven churches in Asia Minor to comfort them, exhort them to good works, warn them of apostasy, and assure them of the Lord's return to bring His people home to paradise. 

A list of Do's and Don'ts when church shopping

Start with congregations close to your home.  The closer to home, the more involved you can be.
Leave your name, address, and other contact info with the church so the they can contact you.
Don't let your first impression be your only impression.  Continue to attend for at least a month before drawing any conclusions.
Talk to members and ask why they attend, and how long they've attended.
Don't be overly concerned about the kinds of instruments and music are used, or whether the service is traditional, contemporary or blended.  You can talk about these things if you start thinking about joining.  Instead, consider the content/teaching/theology.  Music doesn't save you; God's Word does!  Do keep in mind, however, that the form of worship often reflects the church's teaching and theology.  Don't totally discount the music and instruments.  How you worship is often nearly as important as what you believe.
Consider the message.  Is Christ and His death on the cross at the center of the preaching and teaching, or something else?  If it's something else, you may be in the wrong place.  And yes, there should be preaching and teaching on repentance and sin should be treated for what it is -- sinful.  A church that waters down God's Law and only talks about God's love is not offering the full council of God, both Law and Gospel.  STAY AWAY!
Don't focus on the activities or programs.  Every church is different here.  Focus on the foundations.  You can have a very "busy" church without Christ just as you can have a very unbusy church full of Christ.
Christianity is 2,000 years old!  Many traditions and practices have been handed down to us over the ages.  Many have been thrown out.  The Christian church was not created for you and your ego and feelings, but for the whole people of God of all time and space.  Learn to appreciate the traditions and customs, and figure out why a church may have them.
Churches are full of people just like you -- sinners in need of Christ's mercy and forgiveness.  If you find that the church has hypocrites, then you are doing well and you'll probably fit right in.  Oh, and even the pastors are sinners and have weaknesses too.  Do not be too quick to judge a church or its members by how holy it is or how perfect it is.  Perfect churches are more dangerous than anything!
If you decide to join the congregation, expect to be brought through a new member class or catechism.  And when you join, JOIN!  Embrace the teaching, the people, the traditions, all of it, and commit to giving your time, talents, and treasures to that church.

Watch Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller's video on the Biblical precedence of Closed Communion and why all Christians and churches should practice it.

Time to go inside!

So far you've been window shopping, going from church to church and looking through the windows.  But window shopping is over.  It's time to decide.  What is my recommendation?  I recommend a confessional, conservative Lutheran church such as The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, The American Association of Lutheran Churches, or the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.  For the most part, these Lutheran church bodies offer a Scripture alone, faithful, apostolic, orthodox theology and a liturgical, reverent worship.  

Check out the church locators for each of these church bodies by clicking the images on the right.  You may also use the Issues, Etc. logo to find confessional and liturgical LCMS churches and to subscribe to Issues, Etc., a radio and podcast resource of the LCMS full of great interviews, book recommendations, and a whole lot more.  You can look for a church in your area and make this Sunday your opportunity to step in and see.  You will hear Law and Gospel.  You will see the Sacraments of the Lord administered according to the Scripture, and you will see faithful pastors and church workers striving to humbly serve God and love their congregations.

Window shopping is over!  Time to step inside.

Questions?

Who are you?

My name is Rev. Daniel Carlson, and I am the pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Milaca, Minnesota.

Who is St. Paul's Lutheran Church

St. Paul's is a confessional, Lutheran church, a congregation of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  Find out more by visiting https://stpaulsmilaca.org.

Why do you have this site/resource?

Modern, American Evangelicalism has made a mess out of the Christian faith, making it hard for people to know what is true and what is merely opinion.  I created this resources to help a person discern between good and bad teachings, based solely on the Scripture, so that no one is caught with the pants down.  Theology matters!  You can't just believe whatever you please.  Adam and Eve thought they could, and look what happened.

How can I contact you?

Simply fill out the form to the right (below on smaller screens) and let me know what you need.

How can I help you?

Please complete the form and ask your questions.

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