“I don’t need the church! I have my Bible and the Holy Spirit! If I need to hear preaching, I have the television or internet. I can always put on my favorite worship music when I want to praise God. Heck, I even mail my tithe in to a church (or other “ministry”) regularly. So, I appreciate your concern, but I am doing just fine – I don’t mean any offense toward you, but I just don’t need the church!”1

I have encountered this response and variations of it more than a few times over the years. Another reason people give for disengagement from a local body of believers is that there is no reason to bother with the church because it is just a “manmade institution.”

Trying to get self- identified Christians to commit to a local church has been an issue in need of addressing for thousands of years – ever since the author of Hebrews wrote:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.2

The implicit assertion of these and other excuses is that the church just isn’t that important. The thinking is, “The church is fine if you want to do that, but it isn’t necessary.” If the church isn’t that important or necessary, then why should we invest our time, energy, money, and lives into the church? Why risk clashing with others over music tastes and preferences over leadership styles and mission strategy when we can just follow Jesus on our own? Why not just worship God by singing our favorite hymns (or choruses, or worship songs, etc.), and listen to our favorite speaker online or on a DVD with a small group of other believers or by ourselves at our home?

These are questions that must be addressed, because until we see the importance of the church, we may not realize that our devotion and relationship to Christ is, in part, lived out in our devotion and relationship to His church. When we look at the spread of the gospel through the carrying out of the Great Commission from the Book of Acts throughout the rest of the New Testament, what we DO NOT see is an unconnected bunch of individual Jesus followers striking out on their own. Rather, what we DO observe is followers of Christ united together in the Gospel, under the authority of Scripture, with the oversight of designated leadership, and living in covenant community of mutual encouragement and accountability to one another in a local church.

The Bible makes it clear that the church is not merely a man-made institution, a necessary evil, or an option for “Super-Christians.” Nor is it a leftover relic that is nice to keep around for tradition’s sake. No, as God Himself makes clear in His Word, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is vastly important.

I. THE CHURCH IS IMPORTANT TO US BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT TO GOD

First, the church should be important to us because it is important to God! Jesus Himself called the church “His” church3 and Paul tells us that Jesus loves the church and gave Himself up for her.4 The first three chapters of the Book of Revelation make it clear that Jesus takes the purity and role of the church seriously and that he sees it as essential to Kingdom work. He laid down His life for his church and He is coming back to rescue His church. In between, He has left His Spirit to enable, empower, and equip the church to fulfill the mission He left for His church: to make more disciples who, by virtue of being disciples, make up the church!

One must simply reject the Bible’s teaching and the record of the growth of Christianity and the life of First Century Christians to come to the conclusion that the church is optional, outdated, or merely a “man-made institution.” The church is ordained by the Father, paid for by the Son, and empowered by the Spirit. It is thoroughly God’s church.

Additionally, the church is referred to by God’s own Word as “the bride of Christ.” No matter how great a relationship a person has with the groom, it will be strained at best and will never be healthy if you badmouth, ignore, or treat his bride as dispensable or unworthy of your time.

II. THE CHURCH IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT IS THE PRIMARY TRAINING AND EQUIPPING GROUND FOR FULFILLING THE GREAT COMMISSION

Second, the church is important because it is the primary training and equipping ground for fulfilling the Great Commission. Paul writes in Ephesians 4 that:

… [God] gave… the [pastors] and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…5

Christians can often wrongly assume that only pastors, missionaries, and other vocational ministers are the ones who are supposed to make disciples, and that other Christians are supposed to merely try to live a good life, be a good witness with their lifestyle, and if they are really outgoing, maybe then they can share specifically about Jesus and His gospel. But this is simply wrong. The role of pastors and teachers is to train and equip all Christians to go out and make disciples.

It is very clearly not God’s plan for new believers to simply figure things out for themselves. They are to be nurtured, trained, encouraged, and discipled by other believers and overseen and shepherded by a pastor6 that the Lord has placed in their lives through their belonging to a local church.

Suppose that someone tried to convince you that the drill instructors and teachers at the military academies were the only ones who needed to go off to war. After all, they are the experts! We would know intuitively that isn’t true. Military teachers and instructors teach and equip soldiers so that they, the soldiers, will be ready to go off to war! If our country only sent the teachers and instructors to fight our battles, we would suffer defeat every time – no matter how much the instructors knew! The instructors should be fighting as well, but they don’t fight alone! They train and equip others to join with them!

In the same way, pastors and teachers in the church fill the same role. By teaching God’s Word and training believers in how to understand and obey it, they are equipping God’s people to join them in going out and making disciples, just like we are commanded to do. And the method for training and preparation that God has ordained is for disciples to make more disciples under the leadership, oversight, and care of those He has called as pastors. If a so-called Christian removes themselves from the opportunity to be discipled by other believers and from the oversight of teachers and pastors, how do we know that they are being equipped and trained?

III. THE CHURCH IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT PROVIDES CHRISTIANS WITH ACCOUNTABILITY

Third, some may object, “Why can’t an individual just study their Bible and commentaries and theological books at home on their own?” The answer can be summed up in one word: accountability. The church is important because it provides accountability when it comes to the life we live and the doctrine we believe. Every believer should be studying (reading, yes, but not merely reading) their Bibles on their own, but we need regular interaction with other believers to know if we have strayed into error or are incomplete in our beliefs.

This need not look like a theological witch hunt. Consider the case of Apollos,7 a man who spoke very well and was competent when it came to teaching and preaching about Jesus. But there were holes in his theology! His “Doctrine of the Ordinances” did not include believer’s baptism because he had not been taught about it! However, other believers took him aside, corrected him, and taught him where he was lacking. Because of this, he went on to be used mightily by the Lord!

Imagine if Apollos had replied to Priscilla and Aquila, “I don’t need you! Who are you to correct me? I have my Bible and the Holy Spirit!” We need one another to make sure that we are not “accumulating for ourselves teachers to suit our own passions” and “turning away from listening to the truth and wandering off into myths.”8

Along these same lines, there is accountability to the leadership of the church, which is commanded to all believers. Each Christian is meant to be under the grace-filled oversight and authority of a pastor or pastors who will be held accountable by God for how they cared for the sheep in their fold.9 Indeed, the Biblical commands for pastors to teach, lead, correct, rebuke, admonish, encourage, and exhort believers, not to mention to carry out church discipline, are made to be nonsensical if there is no responsibility or accountability to a local body of believers or its leadership by individual Christians.10

IV. THE CHURCH IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE OF THE
“ONE ANOTHERS”

One last (though certainly not the final) reason that the church is important is because we cannot do all that we are commanded to do as believers without “one another-ing.”11 Scripture is full of commands for how we are to treat other believers and they are not optional. We simply cannot be obedient Christians if we live in isolation, because we cannot “one another” if there are no “others” around us!

Here is just a sample of all the ways we are to treat one another:

Be devoted to one another (Rom. 12:10)

Give preference to one another (Rom. 12:10)

Be of the same mind toward one another (Rom. 12:16)

Accept one another by withholding judgment (Rom. 14:1).

Accept one another by showing deference (Rom. 14:1–5; 15:7)

Esteem [highly regard] one another in love (Rom. 14:5; Phil. 2:3)

Build up one another (Rom. 14:19; 1 Thes. 5:11)

Counsel one another (Rom. 15:14)

Serve one another by showing deference in matters of liberty (Gal. 5:13)

Bear one another’s sin burdens (Gal. 6:2)

Be gentle with one another (Eph. 4:2)

Be kind to one another so as to preserve unity (Eph. 4:32)

Speak truth to one another (Eph. 4:25; Col 3:9)

Submit to one another (Eph. 5:21)

Show compassion to one another (Col. 3:12)

Bear with the inherent sinfulness of one another (Col. 3:13)

Forgive one another (Col. 3:13)

Use Spirit-filled, Word-saturated music to teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19)

Comfort one another with the hope of Christ’s return (1 Thes. 4:18)

Encourage one another (1 Thes. 5:11)

Live in peace with one another (1 Thes. 5:13)

Seek good for one another (1 Thes. 5:15)

Encourage one another to forsake unbelief and hardness of heart (Heb. 3:13)

Stimulate one another to spiritual growth (Heb. 10:24)

Encourage one another by faithful participation in your local church (Heb. 10:25)

Confess sins to one another (James 5:16)

Pray for one another’s spiritual and physical healing (James 5:16)

Be long-suffering and patient toward one another (1 Peter 4:8; Eph. 4:2)

Be hospitable to one another without complaint (1 Peter 4:9)

Serve one another (1 Peter 4:10; Gal. 5:13)

Act in humility toward one another (1 Peter 5:5)

Show holy affection to one another (1 Peter 5:14)

Participate in the holy walk with one another (1 John 1:7)

Refuse to become resentful toward one another (1 John 3:11–12)

Give sacrificially to meet one another’s needs (1 John 3:16–17)

Fight fear together by growing in love (1 John 4:18)

Walk in truth together (1 John 3:18; 2 John 1:5)

One simply cannot call themselves a follower of Christ who is walking in obedience to Him and His word if we are not seeking to live these attitudes and actions out on a regular basis. And we cannot do that if we have removed ourselves from regular participation in the life of a covenant community – the local church. Chapters 12 through 13 of First Corinthians is just one place in Scripture where Christians are instructed in how to live in covenant community with each other in a way that is much more than sitting in the same room together for an hour or two each week.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, for these reasons (and others- not the least of which is observing ordinances in the manner in which they are meant to be observed – corporately, not in private) it is clear that the church is not optional; it is essential. If someone who identifies themselves as a Christian refuses to join with and participate in the life of a local church, they do so for one of two reasons.

The first reason is ignorance: genuinely not knowing or having been taught that the Christian life was never meant to be lived in isolation from a covenant community of believers. The second is defiance: knowingly living contrary to what the Bible clearly teaches and placing one’s own preferences and standards above the authority of God’s Word. Both of these instances require loving, gracious, but clear teaching and instruction.

The fact remains that the Bible knows no concept of a “solo Christian.” To say “me and Jesus are just fine without the church” is to completely ignore the overwhelming amount of biblical exhortations that were meant to be obeyed in the context of a local church. How do you encourage, pray with, teach, weep and rejoice with, give to, and provide an example for other believers if your attitude is that you don’t need them? How do you obey and submit to leaders that the Lord, because He loves you, wants to put in your life for your own good, growth, and protection, if you refuse to acknowledge them?

The people of God, whether it be Israel in the Old Testament or the Church in the New Testament or today were never meant to have a relationship with God that would be lived out in isolation from one another. It is a good and gracious gift of God and a testament to His divine wisdom that His plan has always been that His people exist and thrive in community with one another.

His plan, in the garden, in this fallen world, and in the new heavens and new earth, has always been for his people to exist with Him in community: worshipping, working, and living life together, sharing blessings, responsibility and accountability together, encouraging and being encouraged by one another, and being equipped to work together for the spreading and enjoyment of His glory, His gospel, and His kingdom. To be indifferent to the church is to belittle God’s wisdom, plan, and love for the Christian and for the world.

As one song put it, describing the affection of Jesus for His bride:

I haven’t come for only you, but for my people to pursue. You cannot care for me with no regard for her. If you love me, you will love the church.”12

1. For the purposes of this article, references to the “church” are referring to a local body of believers who are covenanted together such as in the case of a “First Baptist (or Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.) Church of Anytown, or Smith Street Bible Church, etc. [↩]
2. Hebrews 10:24-25 (all scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted). [↩]
3. Matthew 16:18. [↩]
4. Ephesians 5:26-27. [↩]
5. Ephesians 4:11-12. [↩]
6. Or pastors. Often times, when the New Testament refers to the office of pastor (pastor, shepherd, bishop, elder – all used to refer to the same office) it is used in the plural. For a discussion of plurality of Elders, see Elders in the Life of the Church: Rediscovering the Biblical Model for Church Leadership by Phil A. Newton and Matt Schmucker (Kregel Ministry, 2014). [↩]
7. Acts 18:24-28. [↩]
8. 2 Timothy 4:3-4. [↩]
9. Hebrews 13:17. [↩]
10. The New Testament is full of such commands – from the teachings of Jesus to the epistles to the churches. For starters, see Matt. 18:10-20, James 5:19-20; gal. 6:1; Heb. 3:12-13; 1 Cor.5:9-13; Titus 3:10-11. [↩]
11. I first heard this phrase from Ray Ortlund Jr. It refers to the many explicit commands in the New Testament for how believers are to treat “one another.” [↩]
12. From the song “The Church” off of the album She Must and Shall Go Free by Derek Webb. I cannot recommend any recent writings, music, or other media from Webb, but his writings and music up through around 2005 (which would include SMASGF) are solid. I highly recommend this album, as well as the live album The House Show which includes dialogue from Webb regarding the theology behind the music he had written to that point, which includes the church. [↩]