Just like there are false ministers, false prophets and false Churches everywhere, it is good to know that there are genuine Pastors and genuine Churches everywhere too. It's your responsibility to discover these.
However, the fact that there are genuine Churches doesn’t mean that there are perfect Churches. There is no perfect Church anywhere! The Church of Christ in itself is not perfect, but it is going through the process of becoming perfect. Hence, there is no 100% perfect Church anywhere in the world. This is because the Church is managed by imperfect and fallible men, but owed by the Lord Jesus Christ who is perfect and infallible.
And because the Church is undergoing the process of becoming perfect the Lord gave different gifts to the Church, “For the PERFECTING of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:” Ephesians 4:12 (emphasis mine).
This truth is seen right from the inception of the Church in the book of Acts where there were divisions among the brethren, all through the book of Corinthians down to the book of Revelation 2 and 3 where seven genuine Churches were addressed, of which only one of them was doing well.
This gives credence to the fact that a local Church can be genuine, but it may not be healthy. Like the seven Churches that were written about in Revelation, only one of them was really healthy. Though, the rest Churches were genuine, but they were not healthy.
If you are looking for a Church that will help you grow in your walk of faith, you must look beyond the genuineness of a Church to knowing if the Church is healthy. This is very vital because the Church you attend will affect your walk with the Lord whether directly or indirectly.
One of the things to watch out for in a healthy Church is her commitment to propagating and living by the truth as spelt out in the scriptures. That is why I always say that Doctrinal errors, heresies and false teaching of the gospel should never be tolerated in any assembly. That is, don't stay in any local Church where the truth is not being taught and practised.
You might want to read: 6 QUALITIES OF A HEALTHY CHURCH
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