Looked good, area outside church (7)
I believe the answer is:
glanced
'looked' is the definition.
(glancing is a kind of looking)
'good area outside church' is the wordplay.
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'area' becomes 'land' (land area is a kind of area**).
'outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'land' enclosing 'ce' is 'lanced'.
'g'+'lanced'='GLANCED'
(Other definitions for glanced that I've seen before include "Looked quickly" , "Took a quick look" , "Glimpsed" , "Looked briefly or bounced off" , "Peeked" .)