Church

Recommend a Church

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 in its entirety before recommending

I really need your help 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)
~ Continuationist churches
~ 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 CultureHillsongElevation, anyone connected with these groups, Catholicsnon-Christians, or any other musician who isn’t doctrinally sound.
~Any church that uses or recommends books and materials from false teachers.
~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 pastor (and staff, if any) listed on its website.
~ Any church that does not have an actual website (a social media page alone is not sufficient).

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 – as it says above the comment box, 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. 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.

Uncategorized

In Case You Missed It…

There’s a lot of great stuff going on in Christendom lately, and I didn’t want you to miss out (especially if you’re not on social media)! So, “in case you missed it”…

Several weeks ago, just for fun and encouragement, I put out the call on social media for women who are using one of my Bible studies – either individually or in a class – to send in some pictures of their study time. Here are the responses I’ve received so far:

Natasha lives in Kiev, Ukraine and is currently working on Imperishable Beauty: A Study of Biblical Womanhood. (She has also completed Living Stones: A Study of 1&2 Peter.) Natasha says: “I pray that God will help me understand and study His Word. And this is not easy since I have 4 children and three of them are under the age of 4…But God is good to me.” I’m sure many of us can relate to that!

My friend, Robin Self says, “Our ladies are LOVING studying verse by verse!” They are working through 1 & 2 Timothy: The Structure and Spirit of the Church.

Megan says: “My friend Paige and I are working through the Colossians Bible Study!! It’s been so refreshing to actually study the Bible, not someone’s book!! We have a group on Facebook1 for people to join (WOMEN ONLY, but we’d love to have more ladies join us!) and watch any recordings if they can’t meet. We got to meet in person for the first time this morning to work through the 5th lesson! Thank you so much for what you do!”

1Just a reminder, Facebook groups, pages, and Bible studies – even mine – are great, but they are not a biblical substitute for active, faithful membership in a local church.

Are you or your ladies’ group working through one of my studies? Send me a picture (email or social media private message), including the study’s title image, if possible, the name of the study you’re using, and a brief comment. I’d love to share it on social media and/or the blog!

Can you believe my A Word Fitly Spoken podcast partner, Amy Spreeman, and I have only spoken at one women’s conference together? We’d like to change that. If you’d like to book both Amy and me to speak at your next women’s event, please click here.

Did you know that G3 Ministries has a shiny new church finder? Check it out, and if your church isn’t listed, pass the link for the application page on to your pastor.

Don’t despair that you can’t find a church in your area or that there are so few listed. For a brand new site with an application process, this is quite a good number of churches. I’ve got it all linked up at my Searching for a new church? tab (in the blue menu bar at the top of this page), so you can keep checking back from time to time to see which new churches have been added.

If you’re looking for a new church right now and you can’t find anything near you on G3’s map, be sure to check out all the other wonderful church search engines and resources at Searching for a new church? I highly recommend the Founders and Master’s Seminary search engines.

And speaking of G3, the hits just keep on coming! You’ve loved their national conference, maybe you’re looking forward to a regional conference, and you’ve probably heard about their expository preaching workshops for pastors. But did you know they’ve added another workshop specially geared toward worship pastors?

Grab this link for G3’s first Biblical Worship Workshop, and pass it along to your pastor or worship pastor. (And you might want to tell them to hurry up and register. I’m really surprised it isn’t already at capacity.)

The singing portion of this video was recorded at my church. You can briefly see yours truly (at the 0:05 mark, near the top of your screen) in the pink glasses and black sweater. Fun stuff! :0)

Another reason I’m excited about this particular G3 workshop is that one of my own pastors, Laramie Minga, is going to be one of the instructors. He knows his stuff, and your pastor will really benefit from sitting under his teaching. (The other guys are good, too! :0)

Also, in case it wasn’t clear from my saying that this workshop is for pastors, this one is for men only, ladies, particularly men who are already pastors or who are on track to becoming pastors.

Interested in becoming a certified biblical counselor? Spring 2022 regional training events are coming to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bardstown, Kentucky, and Moore, South Carolina, so get signed up! Find out more about training and other events at the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) website.

Christmas, Church

Give a Church for Christmas

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 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, especially in the states that don’t have very many recommendations and in countries outside the United States. I’ve made the list, you check it twice. If recommendations are naught, be nice and make one! :0)

Please read this part…

Please read the guidelines here for submitting a church for consideration. If you have a personal connection to a solid church that’s not on the list, or if you have a recommendation for a doctrinally sound church search engine or church planting organization that’s not listed here, comment below with:

🎄The full, correctly spelled name of the church (or church search engine / planting org.)
🎄The city and state, or city and country it’s located in
🎄The church’s (or church search engine’s / planting org’s.) website. Churches and search engines / planting orgs. submitted without a website will not be considered.

Folks, I truly appreciate your recommendations, but PLEASE click the links above to see if your church or church search engine is already on the list. About a third of the recommendations I’ve received so far are already on the list, and it takes time to weed those out.

How many churches can we add to the list? Let’s add a bunch and make it a merry Christmas for our brothers and sisters who are searching for a new church! Thanks for your help!

(Just a reminder – as it says above the comment box, 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.)