If you know me, even a little bit, you know that I love the local church. Not only my local church South Shores, but all good, bible teaching, Jesus exalting local churches everywhere.

And I care about Christians loving the local church.

With this, I am consistently pained to know so many people who claim to love Jesus, but neglect His bride. It hurts my soul to see Christians so casual about being connected to a local church. I don’t know if it is solely due to our American individualism or our terrible understanding of what it means to be a Christian, but I have met countless people over the years who ignore the local church and think they are better for it. Let me say this very clearly: they’re not. In fact, let me say this:

If you claim to be a Christian, but you do not love, regularly fellowship with, serve or come under the submission of a local church then you are not being obedient to Jesus, you are not sharing His love for the church and you are manifesting evidence that reveals salvation may have not come to you.

How can I say this? Because the Bible does. Below are twelve biblical reasons taken from Donald Whitney’s fantastic book Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church: Participating in the Body of Christ that teach being connected with a local church is not an option for Christians, but if they have the ability, it will be an inevitable obedience.

1) Going to church is a biblical requirement

Hebrews 10:25 clearly tells Christians to continually meet together and never stop. This should be enough of a reason for any Christian to be connected to their local church because God has commanded them to in His Word. There is no escaping this clear command without it being called disobedience.

2) Going to church helps prevent backsliding

Whitney observes, “Neglect of the church is almost always one of the first outward signs of backsliding and one of the initial steps taken by those who path ends in complete apostasy.” I have experienced this personally. There are people I have known who have claimed they were Christians, but no longer are. The first thing I saw happen to make me concerned is that they stopped regularly coming to church. As Whitney says, “If you can miss church and not miss church, then something is absent from your heart and faith.”

3) Going to church brings spiritual fellowship and encouragement

“If a child is going to be emotionally healthy, he needs the socialization and encouragement a family can provide. In the same way, every child of God needs the fellowship and encouragement that God intends for him to receive from a church family if he is going to be spiritually healthy.”

4) Going to church expresses obedience to the greatest commandment

Mark 12:28-30 says the greatest commandment to is love God with everything we have. “How can we believe we’re trying to fulfill the greatest of all God’s commandments, and how can we say we want to love the Lord our God with all that we are, if we won’t obey His command to meet regularly with other Christians? How can we say we love Him with everything that’s in us if we can’t get out of bed to worship Him with His people?”

5) Going to church follows Jesus’ example

Luke 4:16 says going to synagogue to meet with God’s people was Jesus’ “custom”. This wasn’t “church” as we know it, but it was the ordained way of worship at the time. So the point is fairly obvious: if we want to be like Jesus then regular church attendance will be something we seek. If meeting with God’s people was the custom of our Savior then it should be ours as well.

6) Going to church is a testimony of support for God’s work in the world

To not go to church shows that one is simply uninterested in supporting God’s work in the world because God has clearly shown in His Word that He works through the Church (Ephesians 3:10). What you choose to do on Sunday instead of going to church reveals what is more important than being a member of His body which works to proclaim His gospel.

7) Going to church enables you to hear in person the preaching of God’s Word

Granted, one can listen to sermons from pastors all around the world, but this is drastically different than going to church and hearing preaching in the local church. How? First, you have no control over the preacher as you do a podcast.. If you are listening to a podcast preacher and you don’t want to listen anymore, you want to hear something different or you begin to feel bad, you can turn him off. Try doing that to your local pastor. Secondly, your podcast preacher is unable to preach in your exact context.. He doesn’t know your city, your situation, current events in your area. He preaches to his own church and you listen like an outsider.

8 ) Going to church allows you to take the Lord’s supper

“The Lord’s supper was given to the church for observance, not to individual Christians. This is an ordinance of Jesus that should be celebrated in the fellowship of a local church. Thus it is by attendance at the setting where the Lord’s Supper is offered that we can obey the Lord and share in this memorial to Him.”

9) Going to church enables you to experience special blessings from God

“In ways that He does not do when we worship Him alone, God blesses us with strength, instruction and encouragement when we come together at church to worship Him.”

10) Going to church helps prevent an unbalanced Christian life

Christians who aren’t connected to a local church are usually the most unbalanced Christians. The difficulty, however, is that they don’t realize it. It’s not easy to discern when your Christian life is unbalanced. Others can usually detect a lack of balance in us better than we can…The Lord uses His body, the church, to protect us against the common temptations that lead to imbalance.”

11) Going to church is one evidence of being a Christian

Whitney comments, “Church attendance is not proof that a person is a Christian, but it is one favorable indication. 1 John 3:14 leads us to believe that those with eternal life will want to go to church. That verse says, ‘We know that we have passed from death to live, because we love the brothers.’”How is it that we know we have come into life? “Because we love the brothers.” At the risk of being too obvious, it is hard to say you love those you avoid.

12) Not going to church is one indication of not being a Christian

Anyone who, without repentance or regret, is persistently willing to disobey the Lord’s command to meet with the people of God when they gather for public worship (Hebrews 10:25), and who is willing to forsake all the privileges and blessings God provides through the local church, may have some “religion”, but they don’t have Biblical Christianity.

I highly recommend Whitney’s book for anyone who wants to study about the church.

I pray that you may come to see that Jesus loves the church and that you may share in His love. Press on.