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The Baptist pastor, Mark Dever is known to sometimes begin his talks to college campus ministries and their students by saying, “If you call yourself a Christian but you are not a member of the church you regularly attend, I worry that you might be going to hell”. He doesn’t do that for shock value, or to somehow add something to what Christ has done for us on the Cross. He does this to show how essential and non-negotiable a healthy local church is to the life of a Christian!

You see, many Christians today have been told that their Christianity is a “personal relationship” with God, which is true, but it is so much more than that! This “personal relationship” with God necessitates many other secondary personal relationships – the relationship that Christ has with his body, the Church. It comes down to what exactly a Christian is. A Christian is someone who is reconciled to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But, a Christian is also someone who has been reconciled to God’s people through Christ! When Adam and Eve fell in Genesis 3, it resulted in alienation from God, but also alienation from one another (Genesis 3:14-19). That is why we have the first murder in Cain killing his brother Abel. Adam’s act of breaking fellowship with God, resulted in breaking of fellowship with other people. That is why, when God begins His plan of salvation by calling Abraham, He does this, not by just saving an individual, but calling together a people, a nation, that will be His own (Genesis 12:2-3).

It is no surprise then that Jesus says that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-40). Being reconciled to God, also means being reconciled to everyone else who is reconciled to God, and the greatest expression of that is the church. In Ephesians 2, Paul describes Christians as “fellow citizens”, “members of God’s household” (vs. 19), “joined together” with Christ into one “holy temple” (vs. 21). The God who calls us into fellowship with Himself, immediately also calls us into fellowship with His people. That is why the author of Hebrews urges us so strongly to be a part of a local church (Hebrews 10:23-27) – except for the very rarest of circumstances, a true Christian knows that he has to build his life into the lives of other believers through the local church. He or she knows that he has not yet arrived, and needs other, still fallen, still in process believers to hold him accountable, and to be accountable to him, and together grow in their conformity to Jesus Christ.

In summary, you may experience some sense of spirituality in listening to sermons, and worship songs at home, which may even be meaningful. But, that is not how God intended to dwell with you. He intends to dwell with you, together with your brothers and sisters in a local church.