I was talking with a friend recently about her search for a church to attend. She and her husband had been attending a church near their home for several years, but she felt that perhaps it was time to find another place to attend. In fact, she had already found a potential church. 

“At this other church, I would be able to teach classes about something which I know a lot about” she said. 

“I thought you were teaching classes at the church you have been attending” I replied. 

“Oh I was” she said. “But do you know what they did? First, they put me in a room with no TV. Imagine that! No TV for a video class! THEN, I had to bring my own extension cord and run electricity from an outlet all the way on the other side of the room! So I had to show the video on my laptop with this long cord running across the room!”

As I listened to her tale of woe, the realization hit me that I had heard it before. Oh, maybe not the exact same story, but similar narratives from friends over the years. In fact, if you’ve been a Christian for more than a few years, you probably have stories of your own. 

“Their Children’s Director was rude to me!”

“I need something more for my youth!”

And the ever-prevalent “I’m just not being fed!”

On the surface, these may sound like legitimate excuses for changing churches. If any place on earth should be able to meet our needs, it should certainly be the church, right? 

The problem with these excuses isn’t that they aren’t valid excuses. They are. The problem is that these excuses are not the problem. They are only a symptom of the problem. The real problem is much deeper than a bad experience at church. The real problem is that we have become more focused on position than placement. 

What do I mean by that? I mean that we have chosen positions in a church rather than allow God to place us in a church. In our consumer-driven culture here in America, we have made the church just another item on our list of things to choose. So, we shop for a church to attend in much the same way we would shop for our next car or next home. We have a list of things that are acceptable, things that are tolerable, and those things that are non-negotiable in a church. Armed with our requirements, we attend several churches until we find one that meets our needs. Until it doesn’t. Then we repeat the process all over again. 

Consider for a moment the case of my friend. Asked to conduct a class that required a TV, she wasn’t provided one. This church clearly doesn’t care about her needs. The obvious choice for her is to find one that does. 

Before she makes that decision, she needs to ask herself a question. Her next step should not be determined by how she was treated by the church. Rather, it should be determined by the answer to this question:  Has God placed me in this church? It is the answer to that question alone that should determine whether she continues to attend that church or begin the search for another. 

The concept of placement may be foreign to a lot of you. What does it mean to be placed and why should you care? 

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul presents the concept that God places each member of the body where he wants it to be. Paul also makes it very clear here that he is talking about the Body of Christ – The Church. Take a minute to think about that. Paul is telling us that God has a place for each of us in the church – and that he puts us where he wants us to be. That is an idea in direct opposition to searching for a church based on what we want. What we should be doing is asking God where he wants us to be placed in the Body of Christ. Which church would he choose for us to become a part of? Where could he use our unique combination of spiritual gifts and natural abilities to further his kingdom? Those are the questions we should be asking. 

Let’s return to my friend for a moment. How would she have reacted differently in her situation if she knew that she was placed where God intended for her to be? 

“They didn’t give me a TV for my video class!”

“Has God placed you in that specific local church?”

“Of course! I asked God to place me where he wanted me to be. I really sensed that this was the place the first time we visited.”

Then why does it matter whether you had a TV or not? If you are where God wants you to be, and you’re doing what he wants you to do, the TV is God’s problem, not yours. Let him deal with it. 

Not being fed? Dealing with a rude staff member? Don’t feel that your family is receiving what it needs? Either God placed you in the church or he didn’t. If you aren’t placed, then that could be the reason for some of your dissatisfaction. On the other hand, if God has placed you where you are, then you are where he wants you to be. Let God deal with the other things. 

Knowing you are placed makes a huge difference in your attitude toward your church. 

The last thing I’ll mention on this subject is that it not only matters that you attend the church where you have been placed by God, but that you are also doing what he wants you to do, not what you want to do.