People often say that you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. But this is a misunderstanding: church in the Bible is not something that you can actually go to.
This session is part of the Your Questions Answered series.
Key Points
- Church is NOT…
- A building. In the New Testament, a building is NEVER called a church.
- A meeting. Again, in the New Testament, church is never called an event (like a service).
- Church is always the people. A building or an event is only church inasmuch as it’s about the people.
- In a sense, you can’t go to church. If you’re a Christian, you ARE church.
- A lot of people seem to think of church like a social club, or something which we can dip in and out of. But actually we should see church like seeing our family.
- When we come to Christ, God puts us in a family of believers. He gives us a whole new family. In fact, in Mark 3:31-35, Jesus says that anyone who does God’s will is in his family.
- So asking “Can I be a Christian without going to church?” is like saying, “Can I be in a family without seeing my family?”
- We need to change our mindset! Being a Christian means loving others, especially loving our church. It’s not about “going to church” – it’s about being with our families.
Explore further
There’s a whole session on church as part of the How to live as a Christian course.
You might also like Heidelberg session #21 on The Church.
Your questions answered
This is part of the Your questions answered feature. See that page for more videos in the series.
If you have a question about Christianity or the Bible, please send them in or comment below.
