“I don’t need to go to a building to meet with God.”
“I can read my Bible and pray anywhere.”
“I love Jesus, but I’m against organized religion.”

I often hear these types of statements as a justification for skipping the weekly gathering of God’s people. It is true that we can meet with God anywhere, but is that a biblically acceptable reason to miss the gathering of God’s people on the Lord’s Day?

We live in a culture where church attendance is valued less and less, especially among younger generations. I am not talking about unbelievers either. Many who call themselves followers of Christ do not place a high value on regular church attendance anymore.

Perhaps some are rebelling against hypocrisy or inconsistency they have witnessed among churchgoers. For some, church attendance may never have become more than a religious ritual that seemed irrelevant to them. Or perhaps we have become too busy, and church attendance is not high on our priority list.

Why You Need the Local Church

We are all likely familiar with the admonition in Hebrews 10:24–25:

“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.”

This well-known passage reminds us that we need to meet together with God’s people. Doing so stirs our hearts and affections toward the Lord and provokes us to do good works. You need brothers and sisters to encourage you and pray for you. You need people in your life who will correct you in grace and love. Our hearts cannot be trusted, so we depend upon others to help us see our blind spots.

God has provided the local church to be this kind of spiritual community. If we are not involved in a local church, if we are not living life with people we have covenanted with, or if we try to live out an “it’s between Jesus and me” kind of spirituality, our spiritual growth will be stunted. Thus, the Lord warns us not to neglect this important time together.

Hebrews 3 also reminds us of our need for Christian brothers and sisters:

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

What will help us remain strong in the faith and fight against a hard heart? Exhortation from our brothers and sisters in Christ. The regular gathering of the saints is a God-ordained community for that very purpose.

It is true that we can worship God anywhere, but is that the only purpose of the church gathering? No. God has designed the gathering to do what cannot be done alone in your living room. You can meet with God by yourself, but God did not call you to serve Him merely as an individual; He called you to be part of the whole body.

Christ is the head who provides nourishment to the rest of the body, and every believer needs this nourishment. If we cut ourselves off from the body of Christ for a prolonged period, we are in danger of being blinded by our sin and having our hearts slowly hardened.

Is it messy when sinners gather together? Yes. There will be issues and the effects of our sin. But, in His wisdom, God has decided to use us even in our messiness to sanctify the whole body. We need one another; God ordinarily grows us in holiness through His Word, His Spirit, and the life of His people.

Church Is Not Just About You

Ephesians 4 says that God gives each believer gifts “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Being part of the body of Christ means using my gifts, energy, and resources to help the body grow in spiritual health and vitality.

However, we are often self-centered in our thinking about church and only consider what we can get out of it. We rarely consider how our presence or absence from a local church affects others.

If you are a believer, the body of Christ needs you and the unique gifts God has given you. He has given you relationships that others may not have. He has equipped you and called you to use your gifts and talents to benefit the church. Just as you need the encouragement, prayers, and rebukes of others, so they need those very same things from you.

To do this, we must be committed to the local church. Yes, there is a universal church made up of believers worldwide. But to serve and use our gifts as instructed by Scripture, we must be part of a local gathering of the redeemed. If we are not gathering with the body of Christ, we rob others of what God has intended to give them through us.

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” Just as it would be harmful to your physical body if you cut off one part of it, so when you cut yourself off from the body of Christ, you hurt the whole body.

The Church as a Picture of Heaven

In Revelation 7, we see a glimpse of heaven as multitudes of people gather around the throne to praise God:

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”

Even in heaven, we will gather together to praise God. When the redeemed gather together in person for worship, the local church offers a unique foretaste of that heavenly assembly.

In a fallen world, the bride of Christ will be hated because she looks different from the world. However, the heavenly scene in Revelation reminds us that God will protect His people, and our victory is secure. While the world may look at the church as insignificant, old-fashioned, or irrelevant, here we see our place in eternity near the throne of God.

You can sing songs and have devotionals to the Lord in your house, and you should. But that does not display the same Revelation 7 picture as the gathered church. When the church assembles each week, she provides a beautiful foreshadowing of believers gathered around the throne in heaven.

Conclusion: Don’t Neglect the Gathering

Regularly gathering with the local church is the normal fruit and visible expression of belonging to the people of God. Where we choose to spend our time will expose what we truly value, and the things we prioritize reflect what we truly believe. When we prioritize the local church gathering, we show our children that church is not an empty religious ritual, but a needed community of saints saved by grace and committed to one another.

Of course, illness, caregiving, unavoidable work, and other providential circumstances may keep us from gathering at times. The concern is not those who are genuinely unable to attend, but the habit of treating the gathering of God’s people as optional. As we meet each week, we display to this sinful world a picture of the coming kingdom, where God’s people will be gathered around the throne as one, praising His name.

Do not miss what God has intended for you and what He intends to do through you as the saints meet together. Yes, there are a thousand other things we could do on Sunday morning, or whenever your church meets, but what could be more beautiful or valuable than uniting with the body of Christ each week? The gathered worship and life of Christ’s church should be among the highest priorities of every believer.

For the glory of God, our good, and the good of others, let us not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some.

Read more in the God’s Design for the Local Church and the Life of the Believer series, or visit us on YouTube.