This article was originally published on our congregation’s earlier website. It is summarized here, with the author’s permission, and the complete original remains available for anyone who wants to read it in full.
Pribble offers guidance for finding a church home. He argues, from Matthew 10:32 and Hebrews 13:17, that membership in a local church is necessary rather than optional, and he encourages readers to look for a Bible-believing, confessionally Reformed or Presbyterian congregation (or, where none is available, a Reformed Baptist or independent church) rather than choosing a church based on worship style or personal preference.
He is critical of a consumer approach to church shopping that asks what “works for me” rather than what pleases God, and he suggests a set of doctrinal questions worth asking a prospective pastor — covering the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, the reality of final judgment, the six-day creation account, the ongoing obligation of the moral law and the Christian Sabbath, worship regulated by Scripture alone, and the practice of church discipline. He recommends attending a candidate church for several weeks, and bathing the decision in prayer, before committing.
Rev. Stephen Pribble is the pastor of Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Lansing, Michigan. This article is © 1996 Stephen Pribble. A companion piece, “Is Church Membership Optional?”, is also summarized on this site.