If you’ve decided to follow Jesus, or you’re getting serious about your faith for the first time, one of the most important next steps is figuring out how to find a church. Not just any church, but a community of people who take God’s Word seriously, live on mission, and will walk alongside you as you grow. This guide will help you know what to look for, what to skip, and how to make a decision you won’t regret.
Learning How to Find a Church
Here’s what I’ve learned after spending years leading local churches and walking alongside new believers: finding a good church is essential, and learning how to find a church can be just as important.
The church isn’t just a building you show up to on Sunday; it’s the living, breathing body of people who follow Jesus together. Jesus never meant for you to follow Him alone. Whether you just met Him last week or you’ve been walking with Him for forty years, you were made to do this with other people. That’s not an opinion; that’s the whole design (Hebrews 10:24-25).
(Not sure why the local church matters so much? Here’s why it’s essential for every believer.)
So, if you are on the search for a good church, here are five things that can help you figure out how to find a church.
1. Start With Who You Know
If you’re brand new to faith, this could be a good first question: who introduced you to Jesus? I assume that you heard about Jesus because somebody told you, somebody prayed with you, somebody handed you a Bible or sat across a table from you and shared their story.
If you have found that person to be trustworthy, you can start by calling that person. Ask where they go to church and possibly go with them.
2. Search for a Church That Trusts the Bible
I know “Google it” might sound too simple, but try this exact search: “churches near me that believe the Bible.” What you’re looking for is a church that treats the Bible as true—not just a good book with good ideas, but as the very words of God, without error, meant to guide your whole life (2 Timothy 3:16).
Faithfulness to God’s Word is essential to a good church. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has created an online search tool that can help you find churches that believe and teach the Bible. Check it out here: https://churches.goingfarther.net/
From the very beginning, the early church was devoted to the Apostles’ Teaching, also known as the New Testament (Acts 2:42). Finding a church that affirms God’s Word as true is the foundational start.
Here’s what to avoid: there are some groups that claim the Bible is authoritative, but they don’t teach that way. Two of the most common are the LDS church (the Church of Latter-day Saints) and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Both groups distort God’s Word and the person of Jesus in ways that place them outside historic Christian teaching. Be aware that these groups are often sincere but hold to teachings that contradict the Gospel. Avoid them.
3. Find a Church Close to Where You Live
I’m talking about proximity: how physically close the church is to your home. This one surprises people, but stay with me.
A good church isn’t just something you attend. It’s a community of people you live near. When your church is ten or twenty minutes away, you start bumping into those people at the grocery store, you can grab dinner on a Tuesday, you can show up when someone is sick, and you can actually do life together instead of just sitting near each other once a week.
A healthy church makes a real difference in the neighborhood around it. When you live close to your church, your neighborhood and your church’s neighborhood are the same place. That overlap is powerful. It sets you up to make a real impact right where you are.
If you’re ever forced to choose between a church that’s close but doesn’t teach truth, and a church that’s further but gets God’s Word right, choose truth every time. However, when both are available, go with the closer one.
4. Look for a Church That Lives Out the Great Commission
Before Jesus left this earth, His very last words to His followers were instructions: go, make disciples, baptize them, teach them. Go to every nation. Go to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20).
This is called the Great Commission—the mission Jesus personally handed to every person who follows Him. The word ‘commission’ here means an assignment or task given directly to you by someone with authority. (Want to understand what living out the Great Commission looks like in everyday life? Here’s what it means to be a missionary.)
A healthy church takes this seriously. It’s not just looking inward or keeping its own people comfortable; it’s actively making new disciples, sending people out, and reaching into both its local neighborhood and the wider world.
When you walk into a church, ask yourself: does this place believe they’re part of Jesus’ story, or do they think Jesus is part of their story? Churches that get the Great Commission right understand they’re not the heroes. Jesus is. They’re just showing up for the mission.
5. Don’t Let the Small Stuff Disqualify the Right Place
Here’s where people go sideways: they find a church with great teaching, a heart for the lost, and real community, but the music isn’t their style. Maybe the church takes communion every week instead of once a month, or the chairs are kind of uncomfortable.
And they leave.
Don’t do that.
The style of music, the order of the service, the color of the carpet… these are what I call minors: they are real, they matter a little, but they are not what you build your church search around. If you start there, you will never find the right place, because something will always bother you, and if it’s always about what you like, it will always be about you.
Good churches are about Jesus and His mission. Learning how to find a church with a community like that will be a blessing to you. The right church is probably closer than you think. It’s probably less perfect than you hoped, but it will almost certainly do more to shape you than you expect.
What’s Your Next Step?
Learning how to find a church is one of the best things you can do as a new or growing believer—but it’s just one piece of the journey. If you’re wondering what it looks like to actually follow Jesus in everyday life, Now What? is a great place to start. It’s designed to help new believers discover foundational ways to grow in their faith, all from Forge Speakers who regularly travel the globe proclaiming the life-changing power of Jesus!
