Scripture: Hebrews 10:25
“Dear Mike: Do we really need to attend an actual church, or can we watch pastors like Dr. David Jeremiah and Pastor Greg Laurie, and read our Bibles and pray daily?”
I think it’s interesting to get this question from you today, especially since you don’t know what’s been going on in my life recently. 🙂
Saturday I was talking with a family member, and he shared with me a note he’d just received from a friend who had visited China last month. The friend, a doctor, had lived in China some years ago, and had gone back for a visit. While checking up on some of his old patients (who had been only boys when he was their doctor), their mother began weeping. She pulled him aside and asked him urgently to pray. She said to him, “They have disbanded our church. We can no longer meet. Many Christians we know are fleeing the country. Others are losing hope. We need your prayers.” Apparently, there’s been a quiet crackdown on “unregistered” churches in her area, and they are fearful because their pastor was arrested and interrogated, and the authorities have been forcefully prohibiting them from gathering together.
Reading your question, I had to wonder how that Chinese mother would respond if asked whether we “really need to attend an actual church” or if a video substitute would do?
I understand the intellectual appeal of divorcing the church sometimes—Christians can be really awful people. But I don’t worship Christians, I worship Christ, and because of that my perspective is that involvement in an actual church is an extravagant privilege given to us by Jesus himself.
One cannot “read our Bibles and pray daily” without quickly seeing in Scripture the dramatic importance and honor it is to be an active part of a local church. The obvious proof text for church attendance is Hebrews 10:25, “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…” That should be enough, but we also see that Jesus himself frequented the Jewish equivalent of modern church in his habitual attendance to Synagogue services (Luke 4:16), and his repeated attendance at the Temple (John 8:2).
Additionally, Jesus surrounded himself with an ongoing “congregation” of disciples, which included the famous Twelve, as well as women and other supporters (Luke 8:1-3). Jesus also indicated that the church was his doing (Matthew 16:18, “…I will build my church…”) and that his church would be a consistent presence where he expected people would gather regularly, and thus be able to resolve disputes between believers (Matthew 18:15-17).
Further, according to Scripture, the church was formed as a direct result of the astonishing outpouring of the Holy Spirit on people from all nations and races (Acts 2:1-12, 41-42, 46-47 – though you might want to read the whole chapter for more context). In other words, the Holy Spirit falls and fills, and the first thing people do is form a community of believers. Then they continue to do that throughout the rest of Scripture and history.
Moreover, the Apostle Paul – who wrote 13 of the 27 New Testament books – spent his entire adult life forming local churches in cities all over the world. Why would he do that if the local church community is an unnecessary thing?
I could go on and on about the church as the Body of Christ, how we are called not simply to take from the church, but to give ourselves in service to the brothers and sisters we find in church; how each of us has a gift to give to the Body of Christ and if we refuse to participate we withhold that gift from God’s intended purpose in giving it; how there are no Christians in Scripture who actively separate themselves from church; and so on. But…I think you asked for an answer to a question, not for a longwinded sermon. 🙂
So, suffice it to say that when you ask, “Do we really need to attend an actual church or can we watch pastors like Dr. David Jeremiah and Pastor Greg Laurie and read our Bibles and pray daily?” … I think you already know the answer.
The real question is what you will choose to do with that.
Hebrews 10:25; Luke 4:16; John 8:2; Luke 8:1-3; Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:15-17; Acts 2
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