Church shopping for me is a little like picking out fruit at the grocery store. I’m not good at picking out fruit – I don’t have the knack for all the little ways one tells the ripeness. I know to stay away from the obviously too ripe or obviously not ripe enough fruit; the difficulty comes when deciding between multiple pieces of fruit that are not obviously bad, but don’t look that appetizing either. Take bananas, for example. If I were to buy delicious-looking bananas when I go shopping, I know I will have a couple rotten bananas on my hands in a week because I won’t get through all of them. On the other hand, if I chose green bananas, they must sit a while ripening before they ready to be eaten. So I try to picky kinda green bananas that aren’t too green.

Church shopping is very similar. First impressions are important, after all, some churches are lemons. But perhaps you just need to spend more time being around the church to understand its character. Other times you could love the first experience with a church but slowly being disinterested as you spend more time there. The trick is to know which churches to stick it out with and which ones to part with amicably as soon as possible. I have no idea how to do this.

I would appreciate any guidance you might have as to selecting a church. What aspects are most important to you? Have you found any tell-tale signs of a church that warrants a further look? What about non-obvious signs that this may not be the best spiritual environment?