Must Christians go to church

[Gary]

I believe everyone should follow their convictions.

 

[farouk]

I believe everyone should follow their convictions.

Well, the folk in Acts 2.42 certainly did: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers".

 

[Gary]

Well, the folk in Acts 2.42 certainly did: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers".

None of that needs to take place inside a local church.

Where 2 or 3 are gathered.....

 

[farouk]

None of that needs to take place inside a local church.

Where 2 or 3 are gathered.....

It also mentions baptism in the previous verse, and so together with the Lord's Supper (breaking of bread) there will always be a distinction between those who have and do observe these corporate symbols and those who do not.

Blessings.

 

[Gary]

As I said, I believe everyone should follow their own convictions.

I don't attend church, I never have. I also don't believe in discouraging someone from attending. Just because it's not right for me doesn't mean it's not right for someone else. Everybody has their own walk. My convictions are not necessarily the same as your convictions and vice versa. If someone feels led to become a member of the local church, I have no problem with that.

Jesus was baptized in a river, as was I. And even though I've never "broken bread" inside a church, I don't believe the Lord is going to condemn me for that.

 

[Eboni Gray]

Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

I know so. He would greatly appreciate it.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Required? No. But fellowship and learning with other believers is important, I'd say. You can study on your own time, but you can learn a lot from other likeminded Christians and there's a feeling of building each other up.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Fellowship is required. It's very much needed in your spiritual growth. Humans need other humans in almost all regards, and very few can thrive as complete hermits on the long run.
That being said, "fellowship" isn't limited to attending a church, like going to a big sarcal building every sunday. It can also mean havign spiritual fellowship with your spouse or your entire family (like having a morning Bible study together every day or a prayer meeting twice a week or so) or with a small group. I've met people that were sick of church but still had a good christian fellowship life with their home group/ cell group every week.

I guess not attending any kind of fellowship would be okay for a short time when circumstances keep you from going anywhere and meetig anyone, but on the long run we definitely need to share our faith life with others or it will wither away or take a turn to the weird.

 

[Nick]

The poll's not a very good one. It's not required, but we should.

In fact we are told not to give up meeting with one another.

I understand everyone's circumstances are different, but to me a Christian not wanting to go to church is a very strange notion indeed.

 

[Classik]

I have noticed the reason some don't attend church is they are busy with a thing or another or it is not convenient for them to attend. Also I have noticed that some who live where you have thousands of good churches still end of not attending any.