Finding A New Church Home

I was asked to write a piece on what to do when you’re the new at a church and want to serve in the worship ministry. But I found that I kept making references to the process of finding a new church home, and my article was useless without this one as a starting point.

There was a point a few years back where I’d found myself looking for a new church.  I had no experience with this. I’d gone to the same church most of my life and the times I’d attended another one, it was a very organic process that brought me there.  So below are some of the lessons I learned in my search for a new church. I prayed my prayers, thought my thoughts, made my lists all with the reality that a major way I was called to serve God was through leading worship. Here’s what I found on my journey.

WHY ARE YOU LOOKING?

Why are you looking for a new church? I’m going to excuse those who’ve moved to a new city or something similar; you are excused from this section (although feel free to read on). So for all of you that are left, why are you looking for a new church?  The grass is always greener. If you’re looking for a new church because you are restless or because you aren’t serving in the way you want to, or for some other reason, stop. Unless God has specifically released you, then you need to stay. Now, we all need to be honest with ourselves here. If God called us to the church we are at, then he’s the one who will call us away. But people have a tendency to bypass that part of the process. As I began to look for a new church, I knew that God was telling me it was time to start that process, but I also knew that I wasn’t allowed to leave yet. Every time I asked to leave, in all truth sometimes there were tears involved, I felt commanded to stay. So I warn you, unless God is telling you it’s time, don’t let restlessness or your own understanding be the reasons you walk out the door.

By way of encouragement, I wouldn’t be married or serving where I am today if I had gone to a new church before God said “okay.” I also wouldn’t have learned things that are invaluable to me now as a worship leader. The moment God said “okay, it’s time,” was the perfect week. Literally, if I’d left my church a week earlier, I would have ended up at the wrong church, and I now see, in the wrong situation. Hindsight always shows that obedience is the better way.

INQUIRE OF THE LORD

Don’t do anything that isn’t first covered in prayer. The reason I knew I wasn’t allowed to leave my church yet was because I had prayed. Also through prayer, I began to discover not just the type of church I was or wasn’t supposed to go to, but what mattered to God in terms of what he was calling me to do in his service.  Hearing God’s voice through prayer, I knew when to stay, when to leave, and what the church I was supposed to go to would look like. This made making decisions easy and straightforward when the time came.

MAKE A LIST

I made a list. I sat down and thought out all the things that mattered to me and didn’t matter to me. I prayed and thought over these things as I began to cut and delete things that didn’t matter. I decided that I should focus on things I was looking for more than things I wasn’t. The main reason for this was that no church is perfect, and I’d rather be comfortable with the things that were good than focus on the things that weren’t. I kept my list to three things for two reasons. The first was to keep is simple and the second was to keep the focus on things that mattered. Here was my list:

1. Bible Teaching

2. Evangelistically/Outreach Focused

3. Forward Thinking

Now, I think the first two are pretty obvious, and they make a point: I’m a Christian before I’m a worship leader. So, if that is true, then I should be picking a church as a Christian instead of as a worship leader. This is a point I can’t emphasis enough. I’ve seen too many people go to churches that aren’t a good fit for them or their families because they get to play in the band. The last point is a little more vague so I’ll explain. The idea of forward thinking is that they are looking forward. I could walk into a church that’s still doing 90’s music, but it’s not because they’re stuck in the past or legalistic, it’s just the players they’ve got. I know that there are churches out there that would love to have new worship leaders, but often worship leaders don’t have the vision for it and they all end up at the same church where they’re third or fourth in the depth chart instead of going to the 90’s worship music church where they’d be leading the change. The forward thinking church won’t always look the same, but it’ll have the same heart beat. This idea cancels out churches that are stuck in the past or not open to change or new ideas, but doesn’t limit me to church that “look” a certain way. It keeps me more open to where God would want to lead me. (See 1 Samuel 16 for more on this concept)

DON’T LIE TO YOURSELF

There are two main areas where I think people lie to themselves during the process.  The first is “why” they are looking for a new church, which we’ve already dealt with.  The second way is in the “what” they are looking for. For example, a few years back, a lot of young folks were leaving my church and others like us for the newest “cool” church in town. Many left not long after because they didn’t want what that church was about, they wanted a cooler version of the church they’d left. If they’d gone through the “why” process, and the “what” process (list making), they might’ve had a better understanding of what they were and weren’t looking for. They might not have been surprised when the new, cool church wasn’t what they wanted.

WE ARE CHRISTIANS FIRST

I mentioned this before, but it’s worth saying again: we are Christians before we are worship leaders. I don’t want to leave a church that’s good for me or good for my family because I’m not in the band enough. I don’t want to go to a church that’s bad for me or bad for my family because they let me play lead guitar instead of bass or bass instead of drums, etc. Being a worship leader is an absolute privilege and a joy. But if my identity (and thus my decision making) is about worship leading and not about Jesus, then maybe the church where I’m not on stage is the best place for me. So whether I’ve moved to a new town, or feel led to move on to a different church in the same city, my motives and criteria needs to be more about Jesus than about that bass.