The age of technology is incredible especially when it comes to Christians. We have so many different recourses to listen to sermons, different podcasts, different messages of encouragement, different teachings from the Bible. There is so much available to us online. And many people come to the point and say, well! my relationship with God is great I read the scripture, I pray at home and I receive teaching on the internet so why do I have to go to Church? Sadly, that is the reality amongst many Christians today. They don’t see the point of Church; they don’t see the purpose of it.
Now, let’s be real. Do they receive perhaps the same teaching in Church as they would on the internet? Absolutely. Do they receive probably a time of prayer as they would on the internet like they would in Church? perhaps! But what is missing with only experiencing Church by yourself at your home versus being in a community of believers is you are missing that fellowship, you are missing that accountability and I understand that many people probably who are more introverted want to avoid crowds altogether and don’t want to trust people so soon which is why they avoid going to Church altogether. But there is more benefit and more fruit to enduring those first few tries of going to Church then avoiding it altogether.
And so if you are one of those people who simply has a relationship only between you and God that is a sad place to be. Number one, you lack accountability. Number two, you lack fellowship. You lack really good friendships that can encourage you in your Faith, that can provide you revelation. You see, if you only listen to yourself and if you only think of yourself as it relates to your relationship with God you are having a very limited approach to Him. And so, if you have other people speaking in to your life, other people who are encouraging you and loving you and giving you feedback as to how to follow Jesus more accurately that is of great value to you as a follower of Jesus.
And so, my encouragement to you would be to find a good community. Find a community where you can confess sin, where they won’t judge you but that they would encourage you to live in holiness, find a community that is going to come and is going to support you in your time of need or in your time of loneliness or for example if you hurting even physically, and you are needing someone to come and care for you not just spiritually speaking but physically speaking, the Church is there for that, the community of the Saints.
You know when God created Adam, He looked at everything Adam had the trees, he had the garden, he had animals, he had food, Adam even had his relationship with God and no sin had yet existed in the world. Yet, what was the one thing that God told Adam? “It is not good for Man to be alone.” And it is the same for us as Christians. We were designed to live within a community. Even God Himself is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and they live within a community. Us created in His image are also called to live in a community of people as well.
Anthony Santiago