Questions to ask when you visit a church (not scored) · The guide

These questions do not match you to a church. Use them when you visit one.

When members disagree about a smaller teaching, what happens?
- A. The pastor or board decides.
- B. People talk about it openly, and they do not have to agree.
- C. People avoid the topic.
- D. Disagreeing can lead to discipline or leaving.
What do the sermons usually come back to?
- A. Right teaching.
- B. How to live well.
- C. Christ and the believer's relationship with God.
- D. Social and cultural issues.
How does the church treat someone who admits a serious failure?
- A. It disciplines first.
- B. It welcomes them and deals with the failure with care.
- C. It quietly asks them to leave.
- D. This rarely comes up.
How does the church handle the gifts of the Spirit in its services?
- A. They are not expected.
- B. They are expected, and the leaders test them.
- C. They are expected, with little testing.
- D. Only people on the platform use them.
How are the elders chosen, and who holds them accountable?
- A. The pastor chooses them.
- B. The members choose them, and the elders answer to the church.
- C. The larger denomination chooses them.
- D. It is not clear.
Does the church teach and practice a close relationship with God, however it describes this?
- A. It is rarely mentioned.
- B. It is mentioned, but rarely practiced.
- C. It is central to the teaching and the practice.
- D. I am not sure.
Does this congregation hold its denomination's stated positions, and where does it differ?
- A. It holds them, and says so.
- B. It differs on a few points, and is open about it.
- C. It differs on several points, or the pastor and the denomination disagree.
- D. I could not tell.
What is the pastor bound to teach, and by what document?
- A. A confession or standards that the pastor affirmed at ordination, and the pastor can name them.
- B. A statement of faith for the church, but the pastor is not asked to affirm it personally.
- C. Scripture, read by the pastor and the congregation, with no further standard.
- D. I could not tell.
If the pastor taught something that went against the denomination's teaching, who could correct that, and has anyone ever done so?
- A. A named body outside the congregation can act, and the pastor can describe a time it did.
- B. A body outside the congregation can act, but the pastor knows of no time it has.
- C. Only the congregation or its board could act.
- D. No one, or I could not tell.
When this church has changed a teaching, how did the change happen?
- A. By a formal vote or act of the larger church, in the open.
- B. By the pastor or leaders, with the congregation told afterward.
- C. Slowly, with no decision anyone can point to.
- D. I could not tell.
What is the music and style of the Sunday service like?
- A. Mostly traditional: hymns, an organ or piano, a choir, and a set order.
- B. A mix of traditional and contemporary.
- C. Mostly contemporary: a worship band, projected words, and a looser order.
- D. I could not tell.
Who decides what is read and preached on a Sunday?
- A. A church-wide plan: the denomination's service book or lectionary sets the readings, and the pastor follows it.
- B. A church-wide lectionary or service book is offered, and the pastor may follow it or adapt it.
- C. The pastor (or the pastor with the elders) plans each service and chooses sermon series freely.
- D. I could not tell.
What does the whole congregation say together in worship?
- A. A confession or catechism that belongs to this denomination.
- B. An ecumenical creed, such as the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed.
- C. Both of these, or one chosen by the pastor week by week.
- D. Neither, or I could not tell.
What happened when you arrived and when you left?
- A. Several people greeted me, asked about me, and invited me to stay or come back.
- B. One or two people greeted me warmly.
- C. An official greeter or a handshake at the door, and then nothing more.
- D. No one spoke to me unless I spoke first.
Does the congregation gather for worship, study, or prayer at other times in the week?
- A. Yes, small groups or Bible studies meet regularly, and many members attend them.
- B. Yes, they are offered, but few attend.
- C. There are occasional events, but no regular gatherings.
- D. No, or I could not tell.
Looking at the people you met, would you look forward to time with them outside the worship service?
- A. Yes, clearly.
- B. Possibly, I would need to know them better.
- C. Probably not.
- D. I cannot tell after one visit.
Was it easy to find a place to sit that suited you, and did that matter to you?
- A. Yes, it was easy, and it mattered to me.
- B. Yes, it was easy, and it did not matter much.
- C. It was awkward (for example, regular members' seats, or a very full or very empty room).
- D. I did not notice.

Questions 11 to 17 were added in v0.89 at the author's request. They are for the reader's own use and are not coded for any church: how one congregation worships, greets, or gathers is local practice, and local practice never changes a church's answer (rule 10). Questions 12 and 13 can be set beside the extra questions X23 and X24, which record what a church's documents say; a congregation may do more or less than its documents require. Questions 14 to 17 are the beginning of a measure of closeness, which the author has described and left unbuilt.