Church
Do I really need to go to church?
Short answer
Yes. You can't follow Jesus alone for long. Church is the family He gives you to grow, serve and be carried when you're weak.
The Bible never imagines a Christian on their own. In Acts, new believers joined a community that met, ate, prayed and learned together. Hebrews says not to neglect meeting together, but to encourage one another.
Church is a body, and you are part of it. A hand cut off from the body doesn't last long. Other Christians encourage, correct and pray for you, and they need what you bring.
Online services help when you're ill or far away, but they can't replace sharing a meal and being known.
This week, go to a service, stay for coffee and introduce yourself to one person. If you can, join a small group, where most real friendships start.
My verses
And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need. With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.” Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, whereas our presentable parts have no such need. But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.