Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church

How do you know if your Church is the right one?

            Sometimes people grow up in a church and never think about whether they are in the right church. They get married in a church perhaps because their family always belonged to the church. Perhaps they liked the way the church looked. Maybe they liked the pastor or priest. Maybe the church was warm and friendly. Maybe it was just down the block from their house. Which church is the right one? Before we answer that question, don’t we need to find out what is meant by “the right one”?
            Does right mean what is right for you? If it’s right for you, does that mean it might not be right for someone else? If we mean which church is right for you, then what is right means what you decide is right. With that thinking, churches become like flowers. All you have to do is pick the one that looks the prettiest to you. You decide which pastor or priest you like the best and which group of people makes you feel the most welcome. People decide what is right and what is not right—one church is right for you, and another is right for someone else.
            But what if right means something different? What if right means “correct” or “true”? Then we are asking which church has the right teaching. That changes things, doesn’t it? When we ask which church is the correct church, we want to know something about what the church stands for and teaches. We can skip over how beautiful the church is or how large it is. Those things may be important, but something more important is at stake.
            In order for a church to be right, it has to teach what God wants. People don’t decide which church is right, God does. He says the church is right when it teaches the truth of his Word. Remember Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). If a large, beautiful church doesn’t stand for the right things, it can’t be true or right.
            Only the Bible teaches what is right about Jesus. Our church teaches what the Bible teaches. So we know that our church is right because it teaches the truth about Jesus. We might not be the largest church or the most impressive on the outside. We try to make everyone feel welcome, but sometimes we fail. We’re sorry about that and promise to do better. But people come to our church because that’s where they hear the truth about Jesus. Without him, nothing else matters.