Do you really need to go to church?

Let me be frank with you. Whether or not you need to go to church depends on who you are.

I know there is a myth out there that goes something to the effect that everyone needs a church home, but this is not what the Bible says. This might sound good, and church might even be a good place to be, but this is not what the Bible says. The fact is that if you are lost, if you have never repented of your sins and turned to Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul, what you need is salvation, not church attendance. You might find salvation while attending church, but the truth is that simply going to church will not gain you any favor with God nor keep you out of Hell.

The trouble with today’s society is that we have a lot of people who sincerely believe that when they die they are going to Heaven, and when you ask them why they believe this, they answer, “I go to church.” For these folks, the day is coming when they will stand before Jesus Christ and beg to be let into the kingdom of Heaven, and will even show him their perfect church attendance record, but he will say unto them, “I never knew you — depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Sad, sad will be that day.

Yet sadder than this are those who need to go, but won’t. Though it might seem backward, once a person receives Christ as their savior, they need to go to a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. While going to church does nothing to effect salvation, and once a person is saved it does not maintain their salvation, nonetheless it is absolutely needful. Yet it never ceases to amaze me how many supposed Christians have the God-forsaken idea that they don’t need to go to church. And you know what the No. 1 excuse for not going is? “I don’t need to go to church in order to worship God.”

I was out knocking on doors just a few weeks ago and heard this excuse yet again, but are you aware that Christians are not told to go to church to worship God? While I agree that you don’t need to be in church to worship God, that is not why Christians need to go. The truth be known, I’ve climbed up Flat Top and overlooked Anchorage with the wind in my face and the sun in my eyes, and as my spirit soared I worshiped my Creator who had made all that grandeur. And my spirit has also soared as I knelt before him in prayer in my own house as much as any time I have worshiped in a church, but worship is not why we are told to go.

In Hebrews 10 we are told, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Did you get that? The reason Christians need to go to church is for exhortation, which is simply encouragement.

Now let me ask you this: How many people can you encourage all alone up on a mountain top or out in the wilderness? Let’s just suppose that someone was going to be at church next Sunday who you alone could encourage, but you were not there? Someone who might be contemplating life or death, or even in danger of falling into sin, and you were not there? Maybe someone who was on the verge of panic, but for your calm demeanor would have been given new hope?

But let’s put the shoe on the other foot and supposed that person were you, and no one was there when you needed them most.

Folks, going to church is about people. To think that you don’t need to go to church to worship God is a very self-centered and short-sighted viewpoint. What’s more, Paul says there that the closer to Christ’s return we would get (the day approaching), the more necessary it would be for God’s people to congregate together. And we see that day approaching, and the temptations are more numerous, and the false doctrines are more wide-spread.

The truth is that church attendance for the born again child of God is not an option, and for those who refuse to go it is called willful sin. I don’t know about you, but this is one sin that I will choose to avoid.

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla; contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net.