I am a committed member to my local church; her name I won’t mention for reasons best known to me. But you see, once in a while, I go out of my comfort zone to attend services of other churches just so I can feel the pulse of Christianity and spirituality in a different environment from mine. In some other cases, I visit other churches for Church Crawler purposes.

This idea of visiting other churches sounds really interesting until you get stuck in a church with some ridiculous traditions you never bargained for and you have to wait till the end. Sometimes, these experiences can be really funny and some other times, they are never funny; especially when faced with a life-threatening situation.

Just to keep you safe, I have made a simple list of things you should do and check off your list before you attend that new church.

1. Check them out on social media: Well, there are high chances that you heard about this new church via social media but if you didn’t, do yourself the honour of checking their social media handles especially Instagram very thoroughly. If the church isn’t on social media, you might want to reconsider visiting the church at all; home church is still there. Nevertheless, if you’ve got my kind of guts, you can go ahead without it. The basic thing is that you have an idea of where you are going to; their dressing, church setting, seating arrangement, and ventilation in order to prepare effectively for the place you’re going to worship.

 

2. Be time conscious: You don’t want to be caught walking into church when the preacher is on the pulpit. Not that it is a sin, but it does not speak well of you to do that especially as a first timer and you know what? You might end up distracting someone whilst walking into the church or missing out on the first timer’s package. Most churches have the times of their services on their social media profiles but do yourself the honours of asking around from people who attend the church for confirmation. If their service starts by 10:00 am, try and get there by 9:30am just to give you ample opportunity to meet new people, relax and get a good seat too.

 

3. Be familiar with their major doctrine. You can listen to a few messages from them and have an idea of the doctrines they hold dear to their heart. Do not bother attending any church whose doctrine conflicts with yours. Reason is you would end up frustrated and offended rather than being blessed. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

 

4. Ensure you know the venue well: After experiencing this so many times, I can say this is one of the most valuable tips. Walking around on a Sunday, sweating and asking for directions is a No! No! Try to do all of that before and you’d be grateful you did.

 

5. Crush your expectations: There’s this thing with having high expectations when going to church which I don’t recommend. I’m not saying you shouldn’t expect God to speak to you and all of that but expecting that you’d be given X and Y for coming to church as a first timer, the church would be cozy or the choir would be on point, as you may be left disappointed. Just attend with a plain mind wanting to receive from God and you’d be safe.

 

6. Inform someone of where you are going: So many things happen in this country and as much as I would want you to explore and experience things for yourself, I would also want you to be safe [just so you can read my next post. LOL]. The idea is your security is more paramount to you than any other thing. Ensure you have that informed someone of where the church is and how you’d get there.

 

Did I leave anything out?

Does that church you’ve always been eyeing fit into this checklist?

Ensure you have a great time attending that church you’ve always wanted to attend.