In today’s connected and data-driven and information saturated world, many are questioning the need for the church.
Why attend a church service when you can just catch the live stream from the comfort of your couch or watch it on-demand whenever it is convenient for you?
For that matter, why attend a local church when you can watch a mega-church service that provides some of the highest quality music and preaching using cutting edge technology and well-polished and rehearsed programs found in the world?
Why attend a small group study when there are countless apps and books written by some of the most educated and talented teachers and scholars and communicators in the world right here on my phone?
Why reach out to a leader in the church when I can just ask Google or Alexa or Siri or ChatGPT whatever questions I have?
Why join together to worship with people who sing off key and don’t play the best whenever I can put my AirPods in and listen to some of the most anointed and talented worshippers on the planet anytime I want?
It isn’t that there is anything wrong with any of these necessarily, but are they replacements for a local church?
Is the concept of church as we know it outdated and irrelevant?
Has church become optional and even unnecessary?
Can someone be a Christian without church?
From the actions of the average United States Christian, maybe not their words, but by their actions, the answers to these questions would be, “Yes.”
Since there are so many concepts and ideas of church out there, let’s turn to the One whom created church and allow Him to define it.
Jesus created the church. It was His idea, His passion, His purpose. Jesus said:
Matthew 16:18
…I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.
Church is the Greek word ekklēsia meaning an assembly of Christians, or in a general sense, the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth. This is far, far more than a statement or a catch phrase to state that “The church is not a building, it is the people who choose to gather there.” This is a truthful fact.
The understanding of what church is and why it exists has been slowly drifting away from what Jesus defined it as. There has been a drift where consumerism has replaced servanthood. We literally “shop” for churches and find one that is exactly what we want. We consume a church’s services and content.
We shop around for a church that supplies the music that we prefer, messages that entertain and inspire us, people that we fit in well with, and programs to meet all of our needs. We look for ones that fit our schedules and lifestyles. We shop for a church that provides ways to serve that are convenient for us or whom are large enough to have paid staff so that we don’t have to serve at all if we don’t want to.
If we get bored or offended or simply find something better, we’re quick to leave and head to the next best thing.
Even attending a 90 minute service once per week is a stretch for most people. There are 10,080 minutes in a week. If we sleep 8 hours, that is 6,720 minutes of activity a week. A tithe, 10%, of even just our active minutes would be 672 minutes or 11 hours per week.
Jesus gave us His everything! Every day, He provides everything that we need and more! Doesn’t He deserve at least 1% of our week? To be clear, 1% of just the active parts of our week would be a little more than 1 hour; the average church service length.
It’s kind of convicting to think that we can barely give Jesus 1% of our week and find a way to do everything else in life during the other 99% of the time that we are awake! Just let the Holy Spirit pierce your heart in the right way with that thought.
Also, we are an incredibly blessed people who have access to information like never before. It’s good to consume the Biblical content and knowledge that is available to us.
However, it was never intended to replace church. Nor can it replace what church truly is!
Most people that you ask on the street would say that they are a Christian and that they are going to Heaven when the die. According to Pew Research, 62% of US adults in 2024 identify as Christians. However, of that percentage, only 25% of them attend services weekly and 49% of them seldom or never attend.
That statement isn’t even logical! I never step foot in a church building, but expect to just waltz into Heaven when I die. Why would you even want to?
Hebrews 10:23-25
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 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.
These statistics might ring true in the United States where we have complete freedom to live out our faith and express it publicly. We live in a nation where “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” and most do not take advantage of that freedom.
What does church look like right now, in today’s world, in a nation that does not provide this freedom?
Iran Church Video
More and more, I’m believing that Christians in nations such as China and Iran have it right. It looks far more like the Christianity of the New Testament than most churches in the United States do.
Whereas we find just about any excuse for not gathering together with our brothers and sisters in Christ to worship and learn and grow, others are willing to die to do so. Whereas we rarely ever tell anyone the good news about Jesus and invite them to receive His salvation, others risk it all and consider their salvation worth it.
Jesus designed and purposed for the church to be His body; His physical presence here across the earth continuing His ministry. He designed and purposed for all of us to be an active part of it. He said that where two or three are gathered in His name, that He is there with them. He values gathering together that much!
It doesn’t matter if it is in a home, in a cave, in a cathedral, in a one-room church with a steeple, or in a church that looks more like a shopping mall, we cannot be a part of the body of Christ without gathering together with other believers.
If we take any one part of our physical bodies and remove it from the other parts, it will immediately begin to die. It is no different with our faith and our role as a part of the body of Christ!
When we assemble together, we should all come expecting to have something from God to share with each other. We should come ready both to give and receive. The church in Corinth had this, but they needed some wisdom on how to put all of the different gifts of the Spirit into practice in a church setting.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33
26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two – or at the most three – should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.
29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace – as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
I pray that every church has this problem that the church in Corinth had! When they assembled together, everybody had something to share! It wasn’t just one person talking at everyone else and then going back home. It was a church – lots of different parts and functions, but all working together to build up the other people of the body.
This goes beyond just spiritual-specific gifts as well. God has given each of us spiritual gifts as well as natural skills and abilities. He then purposefully brought us together because there are other people here who need them.
Jesus also intended that each one of us would follow His example in laying down our own lives in order to meet each other’s needs creating a community where there is no need. Christians.
Acts 11:26
26 …The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
The title, “Christian”, was first a way of scorning and making fun of followers of Jesus. Later, including now, it is accepted as a title of honor. It means that we are Christ-like; one of His disciples.
Is it possible to be saved and to never gather together with another believer?
Sure, I think that it is.
However, that should be an extremely short period of time!
Even if Jesus personally visits and saves someone in some remote village who had never otherwise heard the gospel or receive a translation of the Bible, that person should be sharing it with the rest of the village and gathering together with the others who also receive the gospel.
That is how a church is began.
I do not believe that you can be a Christian and not gather together with other believers; attend church. Now that might be at a typical church building or it may be in someone’s home or a corn field or in a cave. However, we must be connected with other believers.
We cannot fulfill our purpose or experience the fullness of salvation alone. We need each other! That’s simply how God designed it!
Watching a church service on a screen might bless us and may even meet a few of our needs in regard to learning and growing. However, Christianity can only be fully experienced in community through relationships with one another. I need you and you need me.
Jesus has entrusted each one of us with gifts and talents and abilities that He purposefully gave to us in order to continue His work. Jesus said:
John 14:12
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
He sends us out as He sent His first disciples telling them:
Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
After Jesus had risen from the grave, He met with His disciples and told them:
Matthew 28:18-20
18 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Mark 16:15-18
15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.
He intends for us to gather together regularly; to pray, to worship, to read and understand and apply His word. He then intends us to go out into the world! He intends that as we go, that we would evangelize others and freely share the good news about Him.
The church is supposed to gather together not to be entertained, but equipped.
The church is supposed to gather together not to be served, but to serve.
The church is supposed to gather together not to consume, but to be consumed by the Spirit of the One, True, Living God!
The church is supposed to gather together to then be sent back out and then to reach the lost people around us with the good news about Jesus.
How are we doing, church?
Would we still gather together even if it meant risking our lives to do so?
Would we still gather together if we had to leave our SIM cards at home as to not have our location tracked and service spied upon?
Would we wake up in the middle of the night to go and pray and praise?
Would we be willing to put our family’s safety at risk by inviting people to be saved?
Is Jesus worth the sacrifice?
How are we doing, church?
I think we have some room for growth here.
There are still lost people here in this 25 mile radius that God is wanting to GATHER into His Kingdom.
There are still believers here in this 25 mile radius that God wants to GROW in their faith.
There are still needs here in this 25 mile radius that God wants us to GO and serve.
There are still bound people that need set free.
There are still sick people that need healed.
There are overwhelmed people who need hope.
There are poor people who need food and drink and clothes.
There are lonely people who need community.
There are lots of people who could benefit from the wisdom and guidance that God freely gives.
There are lots of people who desperately need an encounter with the life-transforming and awe-inspiring Presence of God.
Let’s be the church!