Church searching - Part 1

**Note: this is just a pretty picture of a church, we are not and never have been affiliated with it.

As I mentioned in my last post, last year our church had a split and we felt we needed to leave. It was a small community church meeting in a school and we really loved it until some troubling information started coming out.  People started spreading rumors and there was lots of mudslinging and ugly e-mails going out to the entire church body.  Eventually about half the staff and elder board left the church as well as nearly every life group leader.

We really struggled with what to do. On one hand, we believe that a membership commitment to a church should be taken seriously and that people are much too quick to leave because of small, unimportant disagreements.  But on the other hand, we were realizing that behind the scenes, there were a lot of things going on that were disconcerting to us.  Ultimately, after much prayer and lots of advice from our spiritual elders, we decided that we needed to move on.  Whether or not the rumors were true, we saw a lot of unloving, self-centered behavior in the congregation/leadership and some unhealthy church government that we felt would only lead to more problems down the road.

All this caused us to really evaluate what it is we are searching for in a church.  I feel that we joined too hastily based on the Sunday service alone without looking past the surface.   Here are a few things that we have learned from this experience.

First, the Sunday service is not everything.  It is only really the outer layer of what church is.  Yes, you want to find a church that helps you worship God and teaches Biblically.  But aside from that, it is about community.  Are there people there that are like-minded and growing in their spiritual walks?  Are they loving and grace-filled, or critical and quick to judge? Finding these things out takes time and involvement.

Second, church government is important.  I had never really considered or cared about church government until we recognized a problem.  Our church was set up as the "Moses Model" which I had never heard of until the pastor explained it.  An article I read on the issue explains it this way:

"It’s a view of church governance that grants complete authority to a church’s pastor. ...The pastor is supposed to be like Moses. He goes into the tent to hear from God. He then comes out and proclaims what God told him. The elders say ‘Amen’ and the people follow.” 

We have several issues with this idea.  The new testament church was not instructed to be set up in that manner and Moses was never set forward as the example of how the church should be structured.  In fact, Paul refers to the elders and leaders of the church in plural, not one leader head over all the church.  And in practical terms, it gives the pastor power that nobody can challenge thus making him the sole head of the church.  We saw this happen and it was a big part of why our church unraveled.  To me, this is a dangerous place for a church to be in.  The article linked above explains the Moses Model, and the problems with it, more thoroughly.

So this time around, as we are searching for a new church home, we are looking for a church that shows Christ's love to others even in difficult times, and we are asking how the church government is structured so that we do not find ourselves in the same situation again.  And above all we are looking to God's guidance and direction through prayer and His word to lead us where He wants us to be.  Because that is the most important thing.