Finding "the right church"

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." Matthew 16:24

I can't help but steal a line from a good friend of mine in ministry (I'll withhold names, but thanks for the insight, buddy!). Someone came to him and said they'd been looking for years for the right church and hadn't quite found the right fit and were thinking about checking his church out. He asked them if they'd ever thought about being "the right church member" instead. He's that way. And he's so right. Discipleship isn't easy and Jesus clearly states that we are called take up our cross, to join the fight, to find our place in the battle, to become part of the mission. Deny and self don't go together in our language these days. Years? Really? Years to find the right church? The church is what it is: the Body of Christ, but filled with flawed individuals. Never expect her to perfect. She won't be. But the call of Christ is for us to do our part to make her more perfect…in the world, on Sunday mornings, to the community. The truth is there is no "right church." Some are bigger and have more flawed people. Some are smaller and have less flawed people. Some have flawed preachers in robes and flawed people playing pipe organs. Some have flawed preachers in jeans and flawed people playing electric guitars. But the issue Jesus would have us focus on is how we can take our cross to enable the mission to be accomplished, for all people to know His amazing love, and to experience his extravagant grace. When you focus on that unbelievably daunting and holy mission, you realize that the only thing that matters finding the place where you're going to serve "the right God."