Follow my logic:
- If we love God and are like him, we will adopt his general priorities (John 15:10)
- God loves the church and it is His primary vehicle for His work until Jesus returns (Ephesians 5:25-27)
- Those who do not love the church do not love God
I believe this line of Biblical reasoning, and so does Derek Thomas of Reformation 21. I love this quote from his article Falling in Love with the Church — again:
Something is terribly wrong when professing Christians do not identify with the church and love being a part of her.
I have long contended that you CAN be a Christian and not be part of a church, but you can not really be a MATURE Christian without it, because a mature Christian loves what God loves, and God loves the Church and is using it to bring his gospel and love to the earth, no matter how imperfectly. Fulfilling the Great Commission through the Church is the primary work of God until Jesus returns, and we need to fit our gifts and passion and story into God's.
You go back and forth between "the" church and "a" church. Which is it? And to which "church" do you refer?
I see 'a' church as a local expression of the 'church universal', which is made up of all believers worldwide and throughout time, as opposed to some specific hierarchical church organization. I would say that if we fail to be part of a LOCAL church, we fail to be committed to the church universal. YMMV.
Then, you might ask, what are the 'believers' to which I would point to something like What are the essentials of faith?
And you might notice that I didn't ask what are the "believers" or what one should believe.
Louis once again do you have a point to your rambles.
This is my outlook.
What matters most is your personel relationship with god. Not your relationship with a specific church. Even though i do believe if you find the right church to fit you it does bring you closer to him. But don't forget a church doesn't half to be inside a church building. A church is a gathering of 2 or more people talking about god. Rather it be at the grocery store or at work.
There is definitely a strong argument that it is not possible to be a Christian without being part of a church community. There are aspects of communal worship that can't be practiced alone. Group prayer is different than individual prayer. Also, if the point of Christianity is to prepare the world for God's kingdom, then we should probably get used to living in the community of believers.
My point, typically misunderstood, was that there is a difference between "the" Church Universal and "a" church, which is local and individual.
>> HOME: There is definitely a strong argument that it is not possible to be a Christian without being part of a church community.
I would not go that far. I would say that you CAN be a Christian and not be part of a church (or parachurch) organization (the key is face to face fellowship, prayer, and worship), but you can't really be a mature, fruitful, or obedient Christian and maintain that stance except by some special grace (like Paul the Apostle for the three years after he got saved – and of course, as he matured, that totally changed).
>> LOUIS: My point, typically misunderstood, was that there is a difference between "the" Church Universal and "a" church, which is local and individual.
Not only that, many confuse the Church Universal with the teachings of some central body like the Catholic Church, or Reformed theology or something. But my definition above is less stringent – it's the somewhat 'mystical' body of believers across time.