Church

Recommend a Church

Michelle Lesley

If you’re searching for a new church (rather than wanting to recommend one) click here.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’m passionate about helping people find doctrinally sound churches to join. I’ve recently been updating my list of… 

Reader Recommended Churches

…but we can always use more recommendations for doctrinally sound churches, church search engines, and church planting organizations, especially in the states that don’t have very many recommendations and in countries outside the United States. So I’d love it if you’d help out by making a recommendation!

Please read this part carefully and in its entirety before recommending
a church.
👇👇👇

I really need your help with preliminary vetting here, readers. Please carefully read and follow the guidelines and instructions below so your recommendation won’t be deleted or rejected.

  • You must have a personal connection (ex: you’re a member or recent former member, you know the pastor personally, etc.) to the church you’re recommending
  • Please check this list to see if the church you’re recommending is already listed. (It takes time for me to weed out recommendations of churches that are already listed.)
  • Please check this link to see if the church search engine or church planting organization you’re recommending is already listed. (Read carefully. The Master’s Seminary, Founders, G3, Grace Advance, and several others are already listed.)

The following types of churches, church search engines, and church planting organizations will not be added to the list (due to doctrinal or other issues)1:

  • United Methodist Churches
  • Calvary Chapel churches (continuationist)
  • Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) churches (continuationist, egalitarian, social justice)
  • Continuationist churches
  • Any church that believes/teaches entire sanctification/sinless perfection
  • Any church that believes/teaches a genuinely regenerated Christian can lose or forfeit his salvation
  • Churches that consider Calvinism/Reformed theology to be false teaching
  • KJV Only churches (Churches which consider the King James Version to be the only acceptable and/or inspired translation of the Bible. Churches which merely prefer using the KJV are fine.)
  • Any church that uses music from Bethel, Jesus Culture, Hillsong, Elevation, Maverick City, anyone connected with these groups (such as Phil Wickham), Catholics, non-Christians, or any other contemporary musician who isn’t doctrinally sound.
  • Any church that uses or recommends books and materials from false teachers. This includes churches recommending, affiliated with, or financially supporting The Gospel Coalition, CRU, or any other parachurch organization which platforms false teachers, and/or is egalitarian, woke, compromises on the Bible’s teaching on gender/sexuality, etc.
  • Any church that violates Scripture’s teaching on the role of women in the church (1 Timothy 2:11-3:7). This includes, but is not necessarily limited to: churches with a female bearing the title of “pastor” (of anything) or “elder,” churches which allow women to function in pastoral roles without the title of pastor / elder (for example: female ministers of music or worship leaders; discipleship “facilitators” or “directors” who essentially function as elders / associate pastors, and so on), churches which allow women to preach to, hold unbiblical authority over, or instruct men or co-ed groups in the Scriptures (for example: teaching / co-teaching co-ed adult Sunday School / Bible study classes or home / small groups).
  • Any church that does not have a detailed statement of faith (“What we believe,” “Doctrinal statement,” etc.) or link to such.
  • Any church that does not have the pastor’s name (and pastoral staff / elders, if any) listed on its website. (I don’t list churches which are currently without a pastor. You’re welcome to submit your church once you get a new pastor.)
  • Any church that does not have a website (a social media page alone is not enough).

If the church, church search engine, or church planting organization you’re considering recommending meets the criteria above, I’d love to consider it! Please comment below with:

  • The full, correctly spelled name of the church, church search engine, or church planting organization
  • The city and state, or city and country the church is located in
  • The church’s, church search engine’s, or church planting organization’s website. Submissions without websites will not be considered and will be automatically deleted.

I apologize if this is inconvenient, but I’m really going to need you to make your recommendation in a comment on this article, rather than a social media comment or private message, email, or comment on another article. That way, I’ll have all the recommendations in one place and I won’t miss yours.

Just a reminder, I handle all comments manually, so your comment will not appear immediately. When I add (or decline to add) your church to the list, I’ll post your comment and let you know whether or not I’ve added your church. Please do not submit your recommendation multiple times because you think I haven’t responded quickly enough. It takes time to sort through and delete multiple submissions for the same church/organization.

I vet every church that’s submitted, so it may take me a while (possibly several weeks to several months) to get to your recommendation depending on how many submissions I receive (last time it was well over 100). Your patience is appreciated.

Thanks so much for helping your brothers and sisters in Christ find a good, solid church!

1I am not saying any church or person who falls into one of these categories is automatically a heretic, unsaved, or a horrible person/church. These are merely the requirements for a church to be on this particular list because these are the requirements most of the people who use this list are looking for.

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25 thoughts on “Recommend a Church”

    1. Hi C.J.- Thanks so much for taking the time to recommend these two churches! I’ve added LBC, but RHC’s website is down right now, so I can’t vet it. I will try to remember to get back to your comment later and check to see if the website is back up, but if I don’t comment back to you within a week or so about adding or not adding RHC, could you please jog my memory by posting another comment that includes RHC’s website? Thanks so much for your help!

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  4. I recommend Spruce Creek Church https://sprucecreekchurch.org in Kittery, Maine. I discovered this little jewel and left the church I’ve attended for 35 years to come here. It’s Calvinist, straight from the scripture, expository preaching.

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  5. Good morning neighbor, this is Ron from Rayville, Louisiana, and I personally attend and recommend Cedar Baptist Church of Archibald, LA. The pastor, Caleb Cunningham, studied at Master’s Seminary for 4 years. Of course, he’s reformed and preaches expository, Christ and Him crucified. We only play music from the Baptist hymnal and Hymns of Grace books. This church is literally a DIAMOND in NELA because we’re surrounded by mostly Pentecostal, Bapticostal and NAR-leaning churches. The church is also listed in the Master’s List of churches. Here’s the address and website link.

    Cedar Baptist Church
    3640 LA-15
    Archibald, LA 71218

    Home

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  7. I live in Redding CA so I know about Bethel. I’ve seen many churches in the area, try to compete by caving in. About every three years or so, a church starts adding things in and it’s so disappointing. Then when we leave, no one will talk to us. We’re attending a First Baptist that seems to be going well. But we continue to trend lightly for awhile. So far so good.

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    1. Hi Debby- I’m so sorry it’s been difficult. I’ve taken a moment to pray that the church you’re visiting will stand firm on the Word and boldly preach and teach sound doctrine. If you stay there for a while and find that it’s the real deal, feel free to comment here and recommend it. I’m sure there are lots of Christians who are looking for a solid church in that area.

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  9. Hi Michelle, I’d love to recommend a church for our brothers and sisters in Ireland: Carrick Baptist Church (http://www.carrickbaptistchurch.com/)

    Pastor Josh and his wife Annie are missionaries/church planters sent from my home church in Maryland, and have become dear friends. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting under Josh’s preaching when his family was home on furlough, and he is a faithful expositor of the Word.

    Thank you for your ministry!

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    1. Hi Janae- I know right where LHBC is! My Dad was originally from Hot Springs and my parents moved back there to retire a long ago. I’ve passed by your church many times. I also attended OBU as a voice major for my freshman year of college, and I remember Dr. & Dr. Bolton from my time there.

      I would love to have been able to add LHBC to the list, but, unfortunately, I’m unable to do so for two reasons:

      1. As mentioned in the criteria above, I don’t list churches that recommend The Gospel Coalition.

      2. I took a look at a few of LHBC’s worship services, and in those worship services women were leading the church in Scripture reading and responsive readings.

      If these things are corrected in the future, I would love for you to re-submit so I can take another look. Blessings to you!

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Before commenting please see the "Welcome" tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page. Comments are handled manually, so there will be a delay before approved comments are posted. I do not publish comments which promote false doctrine.