Mobile Ministry Magazine

As most of you all know, I've been documenting my journey for a new church home over at my blog (UrbanWordz.com). I just couldn't sit in my church home anymore and take the teaching that was being given; I had a desire for more of the Word and less of the charisma (and some unbiblical things) that was being displayed in my church. Since that time, I haven't stepped foot in a church since the end of last year. With all that was going on in my life (a possible move), I wanted to sit and wait to see what was going to happen before starting my search for a new home. In the meantime, I kept fed with podcasts and sermons by some very biblical teachers such as: John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, and Alistair Begg. Well, I ended up moving (Austin, TX) and now I'm more than ready to find a church home. In this article, I will show you how I was able to use the Internet to my benefit in helping me in finding churches to visit (and maybe ultimately have one become my church home).

It all started off with the vast number of recommendations from local friends and new co-workers (seeing how I work for a Christian software company). I immediately turned down my friend because I already knew upfront that his church was very Word of Faith oriented and I wasn't even trying to have that, not at all. Then co-workers told me about their churches and offered to give me the web address so that I could check it out. I added them all to my list of churches to investigate. That was more or less the preface of my search. From that point, I really got in-depth and started to use the Internet to get my engine running.

1) Google Search: The first step in my search was to get on Google and search for churches in the area. I used search phrases like "'Austin TX' + church" and "Churches in Hutto" and ended up with a lot of various search results. With those searches, I found both church websites (many of which I checked out) and directories that had listings of churches in the area. I also used a site that my friend gave me (www.abovegroundsaustin.com) that also happened to have a directory that allowed you to search by denomination or area of the city. It was from these searches that I compiled a list of churches that at least interested me to the point of me wanting to do further investigation by actually visiting their websites. Needless to say, Google was my best friend and my greatest tool in finding churches.

2) Visit Church Websites: The next step in the process was to start perusing through these church websites and see if they had what I was looking for, and to see if they could make the cut. First and foremost, with this step, I knew what I was looking for in a church and I also knew what I didn't want to tolerate, so that made my investigation of the sites very targeted in what I was trying to find. With every site, the first place I stopped at (after glancing through the home page's information) was the statement of faith. If that didn't line up with what I was looking for or if it had "word of faith-isms" then I just closed out the window, crossed them off the list, and went to the next website. Some of the things I looked for specifically were a firm understanding of the Bible's inerrant status, the Godhead, salvation (and how to receive it), among other things.

If they passed the initial test of the statement of faith, then I would go through the site some more and see what their "plan of salvation" was, if they even had one on the site, as well as look at the different types of ministries that they had. By doing this, I was able to see where their focus was and what they were doing church for (the believer or the seeker). It was during this process that I was able to weed out a good majority of the churches I had on my list. They either had questionable statements of faith or a wrong understanding of how someone gets saved, which is how they quickly got the boot from my list. It was after this stage that I narrowed my list down to just a handful of churches that I still had interest in. I even kept a few on the list that were questionable in a few areas, just so I could do a little more homework on them. This takes us to the next step.

3) Download Sermons/Podcasts: Quite ironically, many of the church websites that were left in my list had very nice looking sites, and had full length sermons available on their website for free download. So, with the remaining "contenders," I used this as one of the final tests to see how many more I could weed out before actually trying to visit these churches. With each church, I went and downloaded 2 or 3 sermons, put them on my Zune (mp3 player) and gave them a listen.

As I listened to the sermons, I quickly got a grasp on the type and style of teaching ministry that they have, as well as a firmer understanding of the focus of their ministry. I tried my best not to judge too much after listening to the first sermon, and to then make a judgment call after the 2nd or 3rd. It was from listening to these MP3's that I was able to more quickly weed out the churches and the ones that would keep my attention. The vast majority that I listened to were very topical in nature; furthermore, I found quite a few that were very loose in their use of the Bible in the actual teaching, some that were emergent and others that tried way too hard to be culturally relevant. By the end of this process, I was pretty discouraged, as there wasn't a single church that really kept my interest or that I thought I would even desire to visit.

4) Visiting a Church: It wasn't until I decided to do this entire process again that I was able to find another church that made it past the initial stages and got to the point of me listening to the MP3's. This one church in particular seemed to have everything that I was looking for; the biblical information on their website was on point and they seemed to have the proper viewpoint that a church was supposed to have. One thing that grabbed my attention from their website was a strong emphasis on expository teaching over that of topical, and their stance on spiritual gifts & tithing. What's more, they had MP3's on their website (dating all the way back to 2003) that I was able to download and check them out. So, I did like before and downloaded a few sermons, but these grabbed my attention from the first few moments. The teaching was straight from the Bible, nothing more, and the way he taught was very captivating. After finishing those sermons, I was so hooked that I ended up downloading more (9 in all) and listening to them.

After sharing with my wife, we decided that we would visit this church this coming Sunday (tomorrow) and see what the actual experience would be like. It has everything that we are looking for, and it's just a matter of seeing if we are welcomed with open arms and if the service itself is fruitful, aside from just the teaching ministry. If so, then this will likely become our church home; if not, then it'll be back to the drawing board and doing this process all over again to find more churches. I'll give an update, when I know for sure. I will say that just right now, I'm hooked and to the point to where I don't even want to miss a single church service because of what is being taught there, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a church, one that keeps my attention.

So that's what I did in finding a new church home, and how the Internet greatly aided in my search. Through the usefulness of the Internet, I was first able to find a great deal of churches to look at, then I was able to read through their sites and weed them out, before listening to sermons to make a final decision on who I wanted to physically visit. For me, I think the Lord used this to guide me to the church that is right for me, and I'll be sitting there Sunday. I've been out of church for what seems like forever, so I am more than anxious to get involved with a ministry that I know is teaching the Bible minus the extra stuff. If you're in a similar boat, either because you need a new church home or you just moved, then this is a great way to use technology to find new churches worth visiting, without wasting time on Sundays visiting churches that don't even have what you're looking for. Just remember, like for myself, this isn't the end all, as you still need to physically visit the churches to see if they're the right fit for you.

And just as an fyi, the name of the church I'm visiting is Austin Bible Church (www.austinbiblechurch.com). I really recommend checking out their study on 1 Corinthians that they're doing, it's very on point! Just to show how great of detail they're going into, it has taken them four (4) years to just do the first 12 chapters of this book. God bless!

Originally posted @ Trailblazin' Ministries