When I’m looking over the statistics for the people who visit this blog, I can also see the search terms that bring people to my site. Many of them are interesting. One that seems to keep popping is, “Do I have to go to church to be saved,” or “can I be a Christian and not go to church” or some kind of variation of that. I thought I would touch on this today and try to answer this question to the best of my ability. Let’s just remember that my Bible knowledge is led by the Holy Spirit and not a degree or deep theological study, so if you have anything to add, please, please do so.
The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about those inquiries is why do people not want to go to church? I know that the bad experiences that people have with other people in the church deter them from wanting to attend and more active in the church. Many people don’t want to deal with the drama that surrounds “church folks” so they just stay home. They might think watching church on TV or listening to Gospel music is enough to stay right in God’s eyes. Or they may have had a really bad experience with a church member and blame God. Trust and believe I have had some bad church experiences so I understand how one might question God for allowing His people to act stank. What people do, obviously, isn’t always what God wants.
God wants us to fellowship with one another. He wants us to gather together to help each other heal and so that we can work as on accord to spread the Gospel. We need people. And people are flawed and stupid inside of church and outside. So if we realized how important it is for you to be educated, edified and your talents and gifts to be discovered, then we would have a stronger mindset to stay involved in some sort of ministry.
