CAN CHRISTIANS “DO CHRISTIANITY” WITHOUT THE CHURCH? by Amy Gannett for Core Christianity
She yanked her headphones out of one ear as she saw me approach. “Hey,” she greeted me enthusiastically, “I feel like I haven’t seen you in weeks!”
I had stumbled upon one of the students from our church as I walked through our city’s downtown. Having just emerged from a long season of precautions around gathering and wondering if any of us had been exposed, I was glad she was glad to see me. But (and here’s the more honest truth I was keeping to myself), she was wrong. It hadn’t been weeks since I saw her last; it had been months.
We exchanged small talk, and she told me all about the podcast she now listens to on Sunday mornings (“It’s amazing teaching, you should really check it out”) instead of making her way to church. After months of “having church” in her PJ’s online, she was finding it difficult to re-join the local body of believers. And her hesitations had nothing to do with a virus or safety or health precautions; she just didn’t see the need.
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She thought of church as a series of tasks that we tick off one by one each week—teaching, worship music, and personal relationships. I will admit that our church mantra in the early days of the pandemic likely didn’t help matters. As we awkwardly pivoted to online “gatherings,” we often stressed what could still be done from a distance—a list not much different from my young friend’s.
So naturally, when our church started gathering again in person, her mind sorted the list this way. Christian teaching—that great podcast that releases a new episode weekly—check. Worship music—well, Pandora will shuffle some of the top Christian hits for me (plus I don’t have to lug myself through the hymns I don’t prefer)—check. Personal relationships—online and in person, friends were never in short supply to grab Starbucks or Chick-fil-a—check.
But what was she missing? What are many of us missing? We may consider my friend’s perspective and get the sense that something is missing, that something is awry, that something isn’t quite right. But what is it?
Or, perhaps more bluntly put, can Christians “do Christianity” apart from the church?
While many good things can happen outside of the church in terms of our learning and spiritual edification, none of them accomplish what Christ intends for his gathered people. Or, to answer a blunt question with a blunt answer: No, Christians cannot “do Christianity” apart from the church. Why? Let’s break down this checklist, tick by tick.
Christian Teaching
There are more Christian podcasts today than ever before. More churches are streaming their services online. Famous pastors and noteworthy preachers can be found on YouTube, and their sermons are often available in mass quantity on their church’s website.
And I would dare to say that this is, on the whole, a good thing. More biblical teaching, more preachers making their work available for free online, and more access to doctrine can serve God’s people well. But information will never replace transformation. While there’s a plethora of informative teaching about the Bible, church history, theology and the like available from pastors and preachers and scholars we will never meet, none of them can replace a local pastor preaching to their congregation from the word of God.
