Newbie's guide: bad churches and how to avoid them
Now that we’ve covered the reasons why church is important for you as a new Christian, and how to get the most out of church, it’s time to get a bit more practical and give some tips on how to find a good church — and how to distinguish good churches from bad ones.
As I said in the first section, there are unfortunately a lot of bad churches out there. Plenty of churches start with good intentions but as time goes by, they fall by the wayside. The book of Revelation (of all the books!) actually addresses several ways that churches can fall away from what Jesus intended them to be. Below we’ll outline 3 ways churches can fall away.
Legalistic churches
Some churches fall away by getting trapped in legalism. Legalism means getting caught up in the rules. In their fervor for following God and for distinguishing real Christians from fake ones, legalists make the mistake of reducing a relationship with Jesus to a set of dos and don’ts. These are the Christians that you see in the comments section online nitpicking lyrics of certain songs or criticizing public figures for not dressing modestly enough. They are also the Christians who form the basis of how people of faith are portrayed in Western media today — as people who reduce all of life to a to-do list. In Revelation, this describes the church at Ephesus (an ancient city in Turkey), and this is what Jesus had to say to this church:
“I know all that you’ve done for me—you have worked hard and persevered. I know that you don’t tolerate evil. You have tested those who claimed to be apostles and proved they are not, for they were imposters…But I have this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning. Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first. I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place of influence if you do not repent.” (Revelation 2:1-2, 4-6 TPT)
As you hopefully have learned from this guide and from your own Bible study, there’s more to being a Christian than just saying the Sinner’s Prayer, and there are ways Christians should act that distinguish us from the rest of the world. But any behavioral change should come out of your own relationship with Jesus and your desire to be more like Him, not from arbitrary sets of rules or from a desire to look holier than other people. If we lose our love for God and for other people, it’s like turning the power off on a generator — it makes us useless and annoying, “like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NLT).
So how do you avoid a legalistic church? I’m no church expert, but from my limited experience, legalistic churches are probably the easiest kind of “bad” church to find. (There’s a reason the Western media keeps on using them for fodder!) One time when I had just moved to a new city and was trying to find a church, I went on one church’s website, and the front page of this website proudly listed about 20-25 specific rules that this church followed and believed made them better than other churches. Some of these churches truly stick out like a sore thumb.
Others are more subtle and are friendly at first, welcoming new members in, but as you continue to attend the church, they keep on giving you more rules that you must follow in order to be a real Christian. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: it is really important to know what the Bible says so that people don’t lead you astray with dumb theories or strange specificities. Good churches follow Jesus and his Word the best they can and encourage you to do the same; legalistic churches try to follow Jesus and the Word, but come with too many add-ons that end up stifling your relationship with God.
Overly tolerant churches
On the other hand, some churches fall away from their true intentions not by getting caught up in the rules, but getting too caught up in the philosophies of the world around us. Read enough of the New Testament and you’ll find out that the process of coming to know Jesus will make you pretty different from the people around you. That’s a good thing; it’s supposed to happen. Romans 12:1 (TPT) puts it this way: “Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think.”
There’s a reason why you decided to follow Jesus, right? It’s because He offers something different than what the the world offers. Jesus provides an escape from the pain of this world and will fill you up like no one and nothing else. But living for Jesus in a world that’s not into living for Him is hard and almost always countercultural. And you’ll find that some churches crumble under the pressure of trying to be relevant enough to bring new people in, and thus end up accepting philosophies that are against the Bible but are accepted in the world.
Two of the churches that embody that problem in Revelation are the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira, two more ancient cities in what is now Central Asia. This is what Jesus has to say to one of those churches:
“I know all that you’ve done for me—your love and faith, your ministry and steadfast perseverance. In fact, you now excel in these virtues even more than at the first. But I have this against you: you are forgiving that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is seducing my loving servants…I will lay her low with terrible distress along with all her adulterous partners if they do not repent. And I will strike down her followers with a deadly plague. Then all the congregations will realize that I am the one who thoroughly searches the most secret thought and the innermost being. I will give to each one what their works deserve.” (Revelation 2:19-23 TPT)
In this passage “Jezebel” is a woman who was teaching the people in this church that they could bend the rules and live like the people around them, and still be known as followers of Jesus. As He made clear in these verses, Jesus really doesn’t like that. He came to save us from slavery to sin, and the more you get to know Him, the more you’ll find yourself actively resisting sin in order to get closer to Him. Churches that try to work their way around central truths of the faith in order to be relevant to more people will find themselves trapped in sin, and will often end up falling apart or having some sort of moral failure in leadership as a consequence.
These kinds of churches are harder to distinguish. The vast majority of these churches start out with good intentions, so it can be hard to determine which ones are on a collision course. An easy way of determining whether a church is truly following Christianity is going on their website and looking at their “statement of faith” or “statement of beliefs” section. This usually outlines what the church believes about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and other central tenets of the Christian faith. Usually, if the church’s beliefs are true, their beliefs will be backed up by the Bible. If you can’t back their central beliefs up with what the Bible says, that’s a good indication to stay away.
Lukewarm churches
Other churches don’t fall into the ditches of legalism or worldliness. They just keep on going their merry way, running their Sunday services every week, falling into a routine…until the routine is all they have. They reach a comfortable place where they can operate in peace without too many problems, and they just stay there. You might wonder why that’s wrong at first — is it not good to be comfortable? Comfort in itself isn’t necessarily bad, but many churches end up dying from the inside because they decide to stay in that comfortable place, going through the motions without actively maintaining their relationship with Jesus and their mission. These churches don’t necessarily turn against Jesus and the Christian faith, but they don’t burn with passion for God either. In a sense, they’re like lukewarm coffee — not hot, not cold. This is what Jesus has to say to the lukewarm church:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16 NKJV, emphasis mine)
I remember another time when I was staying in a new city and trying to find a church, and I walked into one church that embodied this passage rather well. On the surface there was nothing offensive about this church. The people were friendly enough and seemed happy. The church was actually a decent size — not too big or too small — and had a kids’ program, youth program, and a bustling coffee shop. It seemed fine, but something was just off, and I could feel it. No one really got into the worship music; they mostly just stood there waiting for it to be over. When the pastor came up to preach, he mostly regaled the people with jokes and allusions to pop culture. The people laughed at his jokes, but there were hardly any references to the Bible or really any learning points. After the service, everyone filed out to chat and pick up their kids, and just went on their merry way. I felt empty afterwards, like I would have been better off spending the morning at home.
These kind of churches don’t really do anything for anyone — they’re just there to be there. And in the world today, with the pressures that will come to you for being a Christian, you really can’t afford to be just there — you have to pick a direction and go in that direction. In the passage above, Jesus says something astonishing: He has more tolerance for people who are outright against Him (cold) than people who pretend to be on His side but have no passion for Him (lukewarm). That is amazing!
Lukewarm churches come in all shapes and sizes. There is no one denomination or style of church that is more “lukewarm” than the others, and people can show their passion for Jesus in many different ways. This isn’t about how much outward passion the people show during worship or how many programs the church runs or even how long the pastor’s sermons are — all of those can vary based on the church and circumstance. But regardless of style, the church should be able to demonstrate reverence and passion for the things of God in everything they do. It’s hard to say exactly what the signs of being lukewarm are — it’s more of a feeling, and it can only be really known from going to the church in person. It’s not really a set of rules — it’s an attitude. If you end up in a church with this kind of attitude, I have one piece of advice — run away.
So now that I’ve regaled you with tales of bad church experiences, you may be wondering, “How can I ever find a good church?” It’s not nearly as hard as you may think, but it is a process! See the next blogpost for tips!