finding a church Finding a Church

[sotphmfm]

Hello Everyone,

I am starting the process to find a church that I can call home. I live in a big city and there are a lot of churches. Do to the fact that there are so many I have come up with the idea to research online and send a questionnaire to each that may be a potential fit for me and my family. I have come up with the following questions and would like your advice on the questions I have come up with before sending this out. I am not trying to offend anyone, but I do want to get to know them a bit before I visit. Then chose 3-4 churches from the responses to visit over the next few weeks.

All thoughts will be appreciated. For those of you who are Pastor's, Preacher's, or Priest's; How would you feel about receiving this?

 

Hello Potential Church Family,

I am conducting research to find a church where I may grow in the Spirit and become an active member. There are many churches in this area and I could spend years attending all of them trying to find the right one. Many churches do not have online websites therefore I am asking the same questions to all that I contact.  

I have made a promise to God that I will attend different churches in the coming weeks. I have researched churches in the area online and your church is one I have chosen to reach out to for more information. Please answer the following questions to assist in finding my home church. These questions are not for judgmental purposes but for me to pray over when choosing a church to visit.

1.     What is your doctrine, statement of faith, mission, vision?

    a.     What estimated percentage of your church body follow these?

2.     Who are your pastor/s?

   a.     Name

   b.     Sex

   c.     Race

   d.     Place of employment (outside the church), if any

   e.     Role within the church (Lead, Children’s, Women’s, Men’s, etc.)

3.     How many elders are in the church? On average how long have they been in attendance?

4.     What events do you hold on a weekly/monthly basis? (Sunday morning worship. Wednesday night prayer group?

   a.     How many members/guests typically attend each of these events?

   b.     What is the composition? (various age ranges, sex, race)

5.     How many members/guests can your congregation hold at one time?

6.     What are your Community Support Ministries/Programs (Prison, Food, Clothing, etc.)?

7.     What is the most vexed theological question the church has faced? How did you deal with it? What was the outcome?

8.     What is the churches position on the role of women?

9.     How does the church practice church discipline? What sort of discipline has been practiced in the past? Please give an example.

10.  What is the process of being baptized and becoming a member?

11.  How many lives are saved in a typical month?

   a.     What percentage of them are in your congregation 3 months after being saved? 6 months?

12.  When an individual is saved in your church what methods/procedures does the church use to support growth in that individual? Does the church take responsibility for the individuals growth? How?

13.  Is the church ever locked? When?

14.  What is the current practice of communion? How often?

15.  Why should I choose your church?

Thank You

[BK1110]

I don't know how many responses you'd get. That's quite a long list of questions, some of them open-ended. I'm also not sure about asking for the race of each pastor.

And really, anyone can say anything to a few questions. To really know, you need to hear if the teaching is good, and speak with members to find out how they are. I would just start with a close one that looks promising. My family attended our church when I was a kid for almost a year or more before making the decision, as I remember.

[bryan]

You might try calling various churches and asking their administrative contact these questions.   They're frequently easier to reach than the pastor and might have more answers.

My family searched for a new home church last year.  I did initial research online with church web pages to see what they said they believed.  For some, it was possible to listen to recent messages / sermons.  That screened out some, but frequently didn't relate much about the 'culture' of the church.  For that, we had to attend a service at least once.

[Willa]

Be sure and ask what they believe about the Bible.  It needs to be the "God breathed" inspired word of God.  Some say it only contains God's word. 

Plenary verbal inspiration

The word plenary means "full" or "complete". Therefore, plenary verbal inspiration asserts that God inspired the complete text(s) of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, including both historical and doctrinal details. The word verbal affirms the idea that inspiration extends to the very words the writers chose. For example, in Acts 1:16 the Apostle Peter says "the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake" (KJV). Paul calls all scripture "God-breathed" in 2 Timothy 3:16 (referring to the Old Testament). Thus, the Holy Spirit guided the writers along (cf. 2 Peter 1:20-21) while allowing their own personalities and freedom to produce the Bible we have today. This view recognizes and asserts both the human and divine element within Scripture.

[Debp]

I agree with BK1110, that sure is alot of questions.   If a questionnaire is really necessary for you, I would simplify the questions... don't ask everything under the sun.

[Hidden In Him]

On 3/11/2018 at 11:33 AM, sotphmfm said:

I have come up with the following questions and would like your advice on the questions I have come up with before sending this out.

LoL. I would have to agree with Bk1110 and Debp. That questionnaire is liable to be answered by someone in ministry, and they may have too much going on with people who already are members of their church to be that worried about spending too much time on someone who may or may not become one. 

I don't want to discourage you or anything; I'm just saying you might want to trim that down to the bare essentials. Without it being intentional, your list also has a way of coming off like you will be the type to hold them highly accountable, and despite not having even met them yet.  Most pastors already have members like that, and they generally aren't too wild about them, LoL, so I'm guessing the number of responses you get will probably be minimal.

It would certainly be a way of giving yourself plenty of heads up if it worked, but in the real world that probably won't work out the way you hoped it would.

God bless.

If you'd like a word of advice, along with searching around, make sure you PRAY often for the Lord to direct you to a good church. Even sometimes when we think we have found the place God has for us, there may be factors involved that we don't realize, but the Lord can protect you from getting overly-involved in a situation that looks right but actually isn't. 

[pg4Him]

This is a really good idea. I might start doing something like this in the future. If a pastor thinks I’m too high-strung, then maybe we are not a good fit.

Members are not chopped liver.