Sadly, one of the things that seems to be common in both rural and urban communities is the ceaseless belief that Christians don’t need to go to church. While I mainly see it coming from people with Low Church backgrounds, it has thoroughly infected Evangelical minds.
In case you don’t know, “Low Church” simply means a church that doesn’t rely on historic liturgical practices. Examples of a High Church practice would be the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican churches. Low Church practices would almost always be seen in Baptist churches, Non-Denominational, Nazarite, some Wesleyan, Calvary, Bible churches, etc.
Whatever the cause of this rogue perspective, people have gotten the idea that church attendance isn’t a vital part of the Christian life. At best, they believe church is optional and at worst, organized religion is a bad thing and should be entirely avoided. Is that to say they long for a disorganized religion? I need to make a point to say, this post is aimed at those who willfully seek to avoid church, not for those who are struggling with corporate gatherings due to health challenges or are struggling to find a church that is faithful to the word of God.
I believe the Bible offers plenty of reasons for us to view church attendance (if not active membership) as an expectation Christians have the privilege of sharing in. I’d like to offer a brief survey of some of the biblical reasons why Christians need to be in church consistently. There is only one caveat to this case: you have to agree that the Bible is the inspired word of God and is binding on our lives. If the Bible is not your final source of authority, then this message is not for you.
The local gathering of believers to worship God is older than Christianity. Jews would meet at synagogues for worship, a practice that Jesus himself participated in (Luke 4:14-16). Jesus-followers continued this practice of meeting regularly.
Let’s begin with the book of Acts, because this is where the Church begins. This united body of people share the central view that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ, the one who died for our sins and rose again to defeat sin and death. They are the Church. And we see clues of a formal, organized collective right from the start.
After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Acts 14:21-23
Already in Acts we see Paul establishing multiple elders meant for multiple churches. Please recognize the significance of this. Why would leadership structures be set up if God didn’t care about gathering His people? You don’t create infrastructure for something that’s not meant to be used. If the gathering of believers was not important, we wouldn’t see the leaders of the Church immediately start establishing churches and getting them up and running. It appears that creating local assemblies was second only to sharing the Gospel.
Next let’s move to Ephesians for what I would consider to be an important point.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:11-16
Christians are given gifts by God through the Holy Spirit to accomplish the building up and growth of the body of Christ. Your Christian gift of service, teaching, prayer, evangelism, administration, leadership, etc. is meant to serve your local body and build them up. When everyone comes together to put their gifts to use, the people within that local church grow together “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
This is a simple Megazord situation. The Power Rangers were given their Zords to defeat the worst enemies thrown at them. It would be foolish for them to just keep fighting the villain of the week individually. We all knew the only rational move was to bring their Zords together to become the Megazord and defeat the giant creature in the foam costume. Clearly.
So to the rogue Christian who thinks church is optional, digital, or too organized, I would say that you are cheating your local body, as well as yourself, out of spiritual growth. There is a spot that isn’t being filled because of your unbiblical perspective on church. Don’t be selfish, go to church!
I couldn’t make any sort of list without mentioning Hebrews 10:24-25:
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
This is likely the clearest biblical instruction on meeting together. In his commentary on Hebrews, R. Kent Hughes writes:
People have a thousand reasons to stay away from church, This is not a new problem. The early Jewish church had a fall-off in attendance due to persecution, ostracism, apostasy, and arrogance. Today persecution and ostracism may not be our experience, but people find many other reasons to absent themselves from worship, not least of which is laziness. But de-churched Christians have always been an aberration, as St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and various classic confessions repeatedly affirm. There are solid Biblical reasons why no one should forego church. R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, pg. 262.
He goes on to list ontological, doxological, theological, and psychological reasons why church attendance is necessary. I appreciate the tone of his comment. There is almost passive dismissal of “de-churched” Christians. It’s as though he is saying “history speaks of your kind, and it’s never special. You come, go, and will promptly be forgotten because of your unwillingness to participate in this grand experience of the historic body of Christ.”
Another commentator writes:
The assembling or gathering of ourselves for Christian communion in private and public, is an earnest of our being gathered together to Him at His appearing. Union is strength; continual assemblings together beget and foster love, and give good opportunities for “provoking to good works,” by “exhorting one another” (Heb 3:13). Ignatius says, “When ye frequently, and in numbers meet together, the powers of Satan are overthrown, and his mischief is neutralized by your likemindedness in the faith.” To neglect such assemblings together might end in apostasy at last. Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 468.
I want to end with the passage I find most compelling in this argument for church attendance. It is another well known passage with some cultural context that gives it a nice twist. 1 Corinthians 5 discusses a situation where a member of the Corinthian church is sleeping with his step mom and the other church members are not doing anything about it.
Side question for those of you who don’t think church is necessary or think meeting with your family is enough: who are you accountable to? Who calls out your sinful behavior or wrong doctrine? Remaining on the straight and narrow is hard enough in today’s world with accountability. I can guarantee that if you don’t have solid, active leadership over you, you will fall into sin and it will grow.
Back to 1 Corinthians 5, Paul responds to this situation in an interesting way. In verse 5 he says, “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Let’s look at two aspects of this verse and then wrap everything up.
First, How is Paul delivering this person to Satan? The Bible describes the general rule of this world as being of Satan (Col. 1:13; 1 John 5:19), despite Jesus currently ruling in Heaven (1 Cor. 15:25; Heb. 8:1; Rev. 3:21). While he doesn’t have complete power to deceive the nations (Rev. 20:3), he is able to work generally to harm, effect, and influence the world. The Apostles and the early Christians believed that the corporate gathering of believers (Sunday morning church) was a protected place where Satan could not harm them. Outside of the fellowship there was not the same protection.
…the language means to turn him back out into Satan’s sphere. This does not mean that Satan would not directly attack him in some way, but that is incidental to the language, not its primary intent. In contrast to the gathered community of believers who experience the Spirit and power of the Lord Jesus in edifying gifts and loving concern for one another, this man is to be put back out into the world, where Satan and his “principalities and powers” still hold sway over people’s lives to destroy them. Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, pg. 209.
Second, what was Paul’s goal in doing this? Paul was not trying to attack this man with some form of spiritual revenge for his sins, rather he hoped that by being put out from the protection and blessings of the fellowship he would see the error of his decisions, repent of his sin, and return to the fold. His “flesh,” representing the man’s sin, would be brought out and exposed, with the hope that he would repent and give his true allegiance to King Jesus, so that he would be saved and be with Christ on the day of His return. Due to the lack of repentance for such a grave sin Paul is right to assume this man is not truly saved and his soul is on the line here. “Paul hopes that the resultant suffering (11:30) will lead to repentance and thus salvation.” Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, pg. 462.
So what is the take away from this, regarding church attendance? The Bible and Paul view separation from the fellowship as a punishment and further bondage to Satan. Rugged individualistic Christians view it as a choice. Whether it’s not wanting to get up early on Sunday, rejecting “organized religion”, or believing you can simply do without church, you are choosing fellowship with Satan over fellowship with the bride of Christ. I’d like to strongly encourage you to reconsider that path. Find a local body to be actively involved with. Go to church.
Nettle-Hibiscus Infusion