Looking for a local church?

On Sundays you will want to worship as a united family, but during the week you may wish to attend meetings designed for different age groups, so the journey to church is a consideration. If at all possible find a church of biblical conviction close to your home. If you are buying a house or have some choice of district, select a home within easy reach of a helpful place of worship. There is an old saying 'Pitch your tent near your tabernacle'. In these days of easy travel, it is often said 'I have a car and a few miles are neither here nor there', but it is not so easy when children want to go to church on their own, if there is a mechanical breakdown, the cost of petrol rises, or the weather is treacherous!

Generally it is right to support the nearest church to your home where the gospel is faithfully preached and your convictions on the church and the ordinances upheld. In some cities there are popular preaching centres and the 'keenest' people go to them. Sometimes there is even a suggestion that unless you do support these central churches you are not very sound. This is a fallacy, if you are giving support to a smaller cause that is equally faithful to the Scriptures. Some attend large fashionable churches with particularly gifted orators where the work is overstaffed and they have little scope for service. God's place for you may be a small work with a less well-known pastor who is equally faithful, and where there is a need for workers, givers and folk to pray. How unworthy it is to choose a church because of its architecture, its social standing, its popularity or its music, and to neglect a smaller cause loyal to the truth which needs help. Attendance at a large church can sometimes mean a lack of willingness to be involved in the hard work characteristic of most lesser known causes.

Douglas G. Millar, "Should I Join a Church?" (The Banner of Truth, November 1968)