Do You Have to Go to Church to Be a Christian?

Roman Catholic dogma says, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, meaning ‘outside the church there is no salvation.’ This is considered to be an infallible doctrine and is therefore not up for debate among Catholics.

But the New Testament is clear that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Attending church is therefore a work that can contribute nothing to our status as children of God.

So, do you have to go to church to be a Christian?

If being a Christian were dependent on going to church, people who came to faith on a desert island or in solitary confinement could not strictly be considered as genuine believers. And the terminally ill would be cut off from Christ on account of being housebound. That can’t be right. 

Most people who ask this question though, I suspect, are physically able to be part of a church but just prefer not to be. Perhaps they find church services boring. “I didn’t get anything out of it” is no doubt a complaint repeated on the journey home from many a church service up and down the land. A vicar friend of mine confided with me that someone once said to him on the way out of church, “I didn’t get anything out of that” and he felt like replying, “Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise we were worshipping you!” But he didn’t quite have the nerve to say it.

Very possibly people might point to experiences in the past that have put them off church. At one extreme, consider those who have been victims of serious safeguarding failures; crime and cover up, or abusive leadership. You can understand why the pain they carry will result in disgust for any church, even if their faith in Christ somehow survived the trauma. 

Who has not heard complaints that Christians are hypocrites? Some Christians definitely are, and that’s a problem, because Jesus reserved his strongest rebukes for religious hypocrites. But, as someone once said, ‘not going to church because of all the hypocrites is a bit like not going to the gym because of all the obese people.’ 

When people permanently leave church because a Christian or a church has acted shamefully and sinfully, I always want to plead with them to look at Jesus and tell me what you find wrong with him. When somebody plays Beethoven hitting wrong notes, out of time, on a badly tuned piano, do we blame the composer? There are good musicians and well-tuned instruments out there. And there are good churches too that are not blighted by hypocrisy.

Actually in the New Testament, church is never a building you go to, or even an organisation you join. It’s a family you belong to. Not once is it said of the earliest Christians that they went to church. They were the church. It was just assumed from the day of Pentecost onwards that Christians would form community. Thus, ‘An unchurched Christian is a grotesque anomaly,’ wrote John Stott. ‘The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very centre of eternal purpose of God.’ 

Do you have to go to church to be a Christian? That’s such an odd question. It’s a bit like asking do men have to go home every night to their wives in order to be married? Technically, no. I’m married because my wife and I said some words at our wedding, and we have a certificate to prove it. I don’t need legally to spend time with Kathie to prove I’m married to her. But if I were to spend every night in the pub with my mates until 2 o’clock in the morning before crashing down in someone’s spare bedroom, I would be a bad husband and something would be obviously wrong with our relationship. 

I’ve belonged to some pretty uninspiring churches in my life. You could say many are cooled and a few are frozen… But I’ve been part of some great ones too. If you can’t find a perfect church in your area, why not find an imperfect one and make it better?

It is tempting, when church is uninspiring or dysfunctional or draining or worse, to say, “I’m done with church, I’m just going to abide in Christ and love God. But that doesn’t wash. Remember when Jesus restored Peter in John 21 and asked him three times, “Do you love me?” When Peter replied that he did, Jesus told him to show it through his commitment to the local church; “feed my lambs, look after my sheep.” 

What should we be looking for and aiming for in every church? It says in the book of Acts that the early church’s generosity shaped the culture. It changed lives. It actually eradicated poverty. It says in chapter 2 that the Christians gave to anyone who had a need in their community. By chapter 4 it says that there were no needy people amongst them!

The many “one anothers” in the Bible only make sense in community. Our Sunday gatherings and midweek meetings and Christian friendships are vital for encouraging one another. The Greek word used in Hebrews 10.24 (let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds) is paroxusmos which means provocation or irritation. The only other place the word is used in the New Testament is to describe Paul’s argument with Barnabas in Acts 15.39. The writer is therefore telling us that we need other Christians precisely because they tell us what we do not want to hear. 

Another reason being an unchurched Christian is bad for your spiritual health is increased vulnerability to spiritual attack. Lions stalk their prey for hours, observing herds of zebras or antelopes, waiting for a weak one to get distracted and become separated from the rest. Once a lion selects its victim, it approaches silently and patiently, until suddenly it springs and eats its prey alive, severing its jugular artery and feasting on the still-warm meat. That ferocious hunter is what God says our enemy is like (1 Peter 5.8). The devil targets weak Christians (who are undernourished from not getting enough of God’s word) and isolated ones (solitary Christians who don’t do church). 

But you being part of a church is not just good for you. You being part of a church is good for others as well. In fact, vital. Every Christian, including you if you are one, has at least one spiritual gift that is given for the express purpose of the building up of others. 1 Corinthians 12 explains that the church is like a body, and each member is an essential part of it, so just as a human body is impaired by blindness, deafness, loss of a limb or organ failure, the local church is weakened and impoverished by Christians who stay at home. 

Finally, Jesus said to his followers that the world will know we belong to him by the love we have for one another. Jesus intended the local church to be a shop window displaying his love and grace to the world. That doesn’t really work if we live in isolation from other Christians.

There’s an African proverb that says, “If you want to go quickly, you go alone, but if you want to go a long way then you go together.” When Jesus said, “I will build my church” he envisaged his project going a long way. 

So, do you have to go to church to be a Christian? It’s a bad question. Here’s a better one: how can any healthy, growing follower of Jesus reject what Jesus loved and gave his life for?

First published on King's Church Darlington's blog page.