Christmas, Church

The 25 Churches of Christmas

Michelle Lesley

This Christmas season, I’d like to offer you an opportunity to help me give our brothers and sisters in Christ a gift – a gift that won’t cost you a dime.

If you’ve followed me for a minute, you know I’m passionate about helping people find doctrinally sound churches to join. And if you’ve ever perused my list of Reader Recommended Churches, you’ve probably noticed that we have tons of listings for churches in some states, only one or two for others, and hardly any for countries outside the U.S.

What I’m hoping to do is add 25 doctrinally sound churches to the list in the states and countries that are lacking. Of course anyone is welcome to recommend a church anywhere, but in order for it to “count” toward The 25 Churches of Christmas, it needs to be a recommendation for a church:

⛪️ in one of our U.S. states that has two or fewer recommendations (currently: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, West Virginia)

OR

⛪️ a church in any country besides the U.S.

I’ve made the list, you check it twice. If recommendations are naught, be nice and make one! :0) If you have a personal connection to a solid church that’s not on the list, comment below with:

🎄The full, correctly spelled name of the church
🎄The city and state, or city and country it’s located in
🎄The church’s website (please, please, please include this – it saves me a lot of time).

Think we can add 25 churches by Christmas Day? Let’s give it a shot and make it a merry Christmas for our brothers and sisters who are searching for a new church! Thanks for your help! :0)

29 thoughts on “The 25 Churches of Christmas”

    1. Hi Karen- Quick question as I was a little unclear on the “Gifts of the Holy Spirit” section of the “What we Believe” page: does this church practice things like speaking in “tongues” (glossolalia), extra-biblical “words of knowledge” or “prophecies”, healing ministries, etc.?

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  3. I recommend Austin Ridge Bible Church, Austin, TX, 78733.
    AustinRidge.org
    Biblically based teaching, excellent outreach and mission minded

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  4. We live in Erie, PA. Weve looked for a church since moving here almost 2 yrs ago! We’ve been to 3 churches that we thought would be good to attend and seemed sound, but the longer we stayed, the more we saw doctrinal (and sin) issues….. We’ve been here a few months now. Pastor is a TMS grad, and elders are good, sound teachers. Website is waaaay behind, but this might be where the Lord will let me serve 😊. We’ve watched them go through something very difficult, and oh how the pastor and elders honored the Word!

    Faith Bible Chapel
    Randolph, NY
    http://Www.Faithbibleny.com

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    1. Glad to hear it – we certainly need more recommendations of good churches in NY! You’re right, the website could use a little tweaking stylistically, but I really hope y’all will keep the detailed statement of faith and ministry philosophy pages. They are very clear and helpful. Also the book recommendation page. I’ve learned that book recommendation pages are the fastest and easiest way to tell where a church is, theologically.

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    1. Thanks so much for the recommendations, Mandi. I’m a little leery of recommending Calvary Chapel churches as I understand there was something of a split a few years ago with some CC churches following the head of CC and others splitting off because he was leading CC into doctrinal error. Any insight into where these two churches/pastors landed in that kerfuffle?

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      1. While I did learn some good Biblical things from CCs, and there are some leaders and ‘members’ there who are still genuinely concerned with proper handling and living out of Scripture — your leeriness is nonetheless warranted.

        I attended Calvary Chapels for several years in two different southwestern MO locations (moved in 2016), but left last year after a scandal hit the local congregation I was attending. My dad still occasionally attends the one in his city. But that doesn’t really address your doctrinal question, per se: CCers tend not to discuss the split, which alarms me. It appears Brodersen still has considerable influence, yet insists the differences among CC are not fundamentally doctrinal. This is the best info I could find on it: https://www.charismanews.com/us/61116-calvary-chapel-costa-mesa-splits-from-association-citing-old-testament-prophet

        Hopefully Mandi can shed more light on how her local CC operates, and what they believe. As for me, I’ve moved onto an LCMS church without any regrets. I do think CCs need to be more aboveboard and organized about what their doctrines actually are, and hold churchgoers accountable in their knowledge. However, anyone can walk into those CC churches (they have no official membership), take communion, and have no clue about what is actually taught in there until they experience it directly, or else look it up themselves (if they bother to). I can’t tell you how many times I came across CCers whose extent of Bible knowledge and living was little beyond “it’s a relationship, not a religion!” (which isn’t even a Scriptural saying.) In the LCMS, the official web site is very clear, and the classes you have to take in the local churches to get confirmed are very specific about what they believe vs. other denominations. You can’t just get by on feelings there, which is good. I wish I could say the same about CCs, but I really can’t.

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  7. I live three hours away from Colonial Baptist Church in Cary NC., but have visited once. Pastor Stephen Davey is also on BBN radio daily. He also has Shepherds Theological Seminary. I would 100 percent recommend Colonial as a Theological sound church. Awesome teaching

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    1. No worries! Recommendations for good churches anywhere are always welcome. My only concern is the women as deacons part. I think I understand the explanation at the top of the “Deacons” page, but if you wouldn’t mind, could you look at the first half of this article and tell me if you think your church’s perspective on women deacons matches this? Thanks!

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  10. http://gracelifedsm.org/

    Grace Life Church of Greater Des Moines
    Ankeny, Iowa
    This is a church plant of Anchored in Truth, a ministry of Grace Life Church of the Shoals, Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

    Also, my church in Bristol, TN, Liberty Baptist Church.
    Our website is old and not great but the sermons are on sermon audio and our pastor is going through Romans right now and is currently in Romans 8. Next weeks sermon should begin with first 27th so it would be a great one to listen to 🙂 https://liberty-online.org/

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  15. To everyone who has commented recommending churches since this article was published- thank you SO much. I have all of your comments in queue, I’ve just had a lot on my plate in the past few weeks and haven’t had a chance to go through them yet. I promise I’ll get to it just as soon as I can. Keep those recommendations coming!

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