Do We Have To Go To Church?

A friend and I were recently discussing the importance of church attendance and he asked me whether I thought someone had to attend church in order to be right with God. Here's what I said:


As for the question of the necessity of going to church, if we say that attending or having membership in a church is necessary for salvation, then we would be saying that Christ alone isn't sufficient to save someone, without the additional act of our church attendance. So, no, a person's eternal salvation doesn't depend on church attendance, it depends on surrendering one's heart to God.

However, it is God’s design for Christians to be in fellowship with each other. To become a Christian is to be adopted into God’s family. It’s hard to imagine someone being adopted into a family and not wanting to spend time around the other family members. It’s clear in the Bible (Acts 2:42-46, Hebrews 10:19-25) that church life is what God wants to be the normal way of life for his children.

Corporate worship and teaching should also be a main means of making Christians stronger. Church should be the place where we grow deeper in our understanding of Scripture and how to live the Christian life, as well as a place of great synergy where Christians get organized and mobilized in pursing God’s purposes in the world, and are all the more empowered to do so by the mutual encouragement that comes from fellowship. With this in mind, the question “Can someone be saved and not go to church” is a lot like the question, “Can someone eat only crackers and water and still survive.” The answer is yes, but it would be very far from ideal.

This quote from Book I, ch. 2 in Mere Christianity seems to say it about as well as can be said:

“God can show Himself as He really is only to real men. And that means not simply to men who are individually good, but to men who are united together in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another. For that is what God meant humanity to be like: like players in one band, or organs in one body.
Consequently, the one really adequate instrument for learning about God is the whole Christian community, waiting for Him together. Christian brotherhood is, so to speak, the technical equipment for this science - the laboratory outfit.”