Thanks to technology, the Coronavirus hasn’t kept many Christians from the blessing of weekly teaching from their pastor. For many, this isn’t much different from regular “church” where we sit down, listen to a sermon, and leave. If anything, it’s a nice break to eat cereal and sit in our pajamas while our pastor speaks.
However, many of us have a fundamental misunderstanding of why we go to church in the first place. Because of that, it’s easy to think that watching a pastor online is “going to church at home” or “doing a home church.” And while this temporary ban on public gatherings makes this a requirement, it’s important for us to remember that sitting at home and listening to a sermon causes us to miss out on some of the most important aspects of the church, and it’s those very things that are the core of why God has created a community of believers.
The basic purpose of church
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)
In this verse, we see the beginning of the church. And although we don’t have to model the church in Acts exactly how they did things, we can look at the core principles behind what they did and understand what is important in any church. So as these early Christians would leave Jerusalem and return to their home countries, what core principles would they use as they started more churches?
- Grow under true, biblical teaching
- Exist as a community
- Prioritize prayer
In this time of sickness and uncertainty, most churches have been able to continue with growing through the preaching of God’s word. For many, prayer has become more than a brief pause as people are reminded of how much we rely on God for everything in our lives. One important role of the church is to love and serve Christ, and many are doing that as well as they can.
However, it’s that “community” aspect we’re missing. Just as we are to love and serve Christ, our call to love and serve one another is why sitting at home and watching a sermon will never be an adequate substitute for gathering together with our brothers and sisters. Let’s discuss what we’re meant to look like as a community, and why we should look forward to an end of our temporary pause in fellowship.
Christ calls us to meet regularly
… not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:25)
No, we aren’t forsaking our assembling by temporarily postponing our weekly meetings. Forsaking something doesn’t mean to put it on pause, but to outright abandon it. We wouldn’t meet for church if it were in the middle of a forest fire, yet we wouldn’t be forsaking anything because our hearts would desire what circumstances, for the moment, wouldn’t allow.
However, the general call for Christians is to meet together regularly. Not in terms of meeting with friends who happen to be Christians. That’s easy, and as we’ll discuss that’s never what the New Testament writers had in mind. We are called to assemble together with people we don’t know, and if we’re honest we’ll find ourselves around people we wouldn’t otherwise associate with outside that meeting time.
So if we’re supposed to meet together regularly, what’s the point? We’ve seen that we can easily get Bible teaching without going to church, so what is it about coming together that is so important to the Christian life?
We use our spiritual gifts to build up other Christians
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24)
This may be the most important thing we miss when we don’t meet together. Part of our Christian growth comes from our own time in the Bible as well as the teaching and leadership of our pastors. However, God also uses other Christians as a huge blessing in our lives, building us up and encouraging us in our walk with Christ. They don’t exist just to make us feel good, but to sharpen us just as we will sharpen them.
When we willingly meet together with other Christians, we do more than act in obedience. We allow them to serve Christ as well. If someone has a spiritual gift, they need a target. They need other Christians around them so that they can use the gift God has given them to love and serve others. They need you so that they can serve Christ in whatever way He has called them to serve.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)
Yet we don’t just miss out on others blessing us, because the local church isn’t about what we get out of it. Whether or not we realize it, God has given each of us some spiritual gift, and with that the duty to serve others with it. No matter how big or small it may be, God calls us to love others by using those gifts.
If we don’t meet together, our opportunities are severely limited. As time goes on and we become less connected with Christians outside our immediate circle, then the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives slowly becomes more about us and less about those He calls us to serve.
(If you’d like to read more about knowing and using your spiritual gifts, check out my article here)
Christians cheer and cry with one another
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)
People I meet online don’t know my sin struggles. Those I’ve met a few times aren’t who I turn to when something exciting happens in my life. When sickness or death comes for my family, you won’t find me weeping with someone who’s name I’ve heard but have never really met.
Why? Because we don’t let someone into our lives without both of us first spending time and energy on one another. We don’t have specific concern and investment in the lives of those we only barely know. We may feel general sadness or excitement at their circumstances, but the more disconnected we are in our relationship, the less likely we are to regularly share the important things in our life.
Ultimately, physical presence just makes us more likely to develop relationships. If every Christian stays home and neglects their earthly relationships, Christianity will quickly dry up as we become increasingly isolated and selfish in how we spend our time.
The world knows us by our love for each other
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)
Something that stands out about Christians isn’t how nice we are, but how we love one another. This is seen with how we treat all our brothers and sisters, not just our friends who are also Christians. If someone is in need, we don’t require them to be our friends because we are bonded to them through something much more important than friendship or shared hobbies.
It’s out of obedience and love for Christ that we love and serve one another. Yet again, we run into the issue of what happens when we treat church as “just a sermon.” How will our actions serve as a testament to the world when we remove our opportunities to not just have love for one another, but demonstrate that love through acts of service and sacrifice?
Sermons work for now, but don’t get comfortable
Unfortunately, we’re going to spend a few months apart from our brothers and sisters. Our pastors are doing the best they can to guide and equip God’s people, but our Christian life will be incomplete until we can live out every part of what it means to “do church.”
Stay home for now. Keep ministering to friends and family as much as you can. Seek a wise Christian to disciple you or find a newer Christian in need of discipleship. Serve your church as well as you can.
But don’t let this become comfortable. Even as we learn contentment with whatever God brings into our lives, let us always look forward to the day when we can meet together again. Let our absence from other believers create an ache within us as we recognize how incomplete our Christian walk is without loving and serving local believers through our gifts, and likewise allowing them to obey Christ by serving us.
Keep growing under the teaching of your pastor, but remember that church is about so much more than simply learning about Jesus Christ for 40 minutes. It’s about our relationship with Christ and letting that motivate our relationship with people like us who have been brought into God’s family through our Savior’s death on the cross.
