Is church really necessary?

I have been troubled for a long time by the Lone Ranger Christian mentality of so many in the Evangelical community. This is the attitude that “All I need is Jesus and the Bible, and since the church is so full of problems and hypocrites, I am perfectly fine without it. I can take my Bible to the top of the local mountain on Sunday morning, have my evangelical Quiet Time, and be fully equipped for the work of the Kingdom, free from the pestiferous church people who just get in my way.”

One problem with this attitude is that most of these Lone Rangers rarely get to the top of the mountain (we live in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia) on Sunday morning anyway. Instead they sleep in, read the paper and sip their coffee. Maybe they’ll watch a Sunday morning preacher. They miss out on the Word of God coming through preaching, which Paul suggests has a special power beyond what comes simply by reading the Bible on our own (Rom 10: 8, 17). That Word has the added advantage of coming through another person, and so it often challenges our own presumptions and prejudices.

The Lone Rangers also avoid the threat of being challenged by fellow believers at church, whether in Sunday School lessons or simply over coffee. They forego the comfort and encouragement we often need when going through crises.

When I think of how Christ has grown me over the years, nearly every enlargement of my vision of God has been through hearing a sermon, or studying a book with other believers, or being challenged or comforted by others in the church. I know from experience that when I have been absent from fellowship for a while, usually because of travel or other necessity, I have been more tempted to stray off the narrow path. This has reminded me of why we see no Lone Rangers in the New Testament, and why instead all the believers we see there are active in local churches.