Do I Have to Be IN Church to Have Church?

My good friend Lynn Green over at Hicktown Press, an excellent blog that pulls no punches, recently wrote an article about four churches that took off a Sunday to do work in the community.  The link is here (Canceled Church Service).  She and I mildly debated regarding the issue and while I do not advocate canceling church every Sunday, one Sunday out of the month to get the entire congregation involved in serving the community is not a bad idea.  The issue centers around the scripture in Hebrews 10:23-25 where the bible says this: 

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near"

If we unpack this scripture we see several things but not one of them is where we are to worship.  The scripture says simply that we not forsake assembling together, not in a building, not to hear preaching, but to encourage one another!  We are to encourage each other and provoke each other to love and good works...in this way, we glorify God, we show proof of our discipleship and we obey God's word.  The Christians that this scripture is referring to did not meet in a particular place.  Actually, in the 1st century, they met house to house. 

What these four churches did is commendable and I don't think anyone will be going to hell over serving the community with Jesus in their hearts and God's love on their minds.  They were doing exactly what the bible says to do, spur each other to good works and to love.  What better way to do that than to take the church to the community and show them that there are Christians that put some works behind their faith.  James 2:14-16 is succinct about how faith and works correlate:

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^b is that?  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

These people did no wrong in canceling one Sunday to do what the bible says we should do.  Jesus said that we are to let our lights shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father that is in heaven.  If this were me, I would have had a few minutes after all of the work was done to lift the name of Jesus and to help the congregation understand why we did what we did.  I don't know if the pastor(s) actually did that but I would not be surprised if they did.  What the pastor should stress is this, these things WILL NOT get you into heaven.  We are not saved by works, but saved folks ought to have some works to put behind what we say.  Staying cramped within the four walls of a building does nothing to stretch a person's faith.  Actually, we have gotten too comfortable and we don't do enough of this type of stuff in the church.

We go to church to "worship" God.  Worship simply means that we make God the center of our lives.  The actual word in Greek, proskeuno, means to kiss towards.  Literally, to kiss the ground that the object of worship walks on.  We know that God does not walk on the ground but the thought is that God is so awesome that we should bow at his feet and kiss the very ground before Him!  Knowing this, we should worship God every day with our lives.  We should worship by using our talents and gifts to glorify God, we should worship by living out what the Bible says.  We should live as if we KNOW that God is real and as if Jesus was coming back tomorrow.  That cannot be contained within a building but within the heart of the believer.

I am not saying that people should not go to church.  The apostle Paul laid out the offices of the "church", that we call the body of Christ, in Ephesians 4.  We know this model as the five-fold ministry. Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers all work together to build up the body of Christ to unity of the faith.  The model has been working for thousands of years.  We get a room full of like minded people (hopefully they are like minded) together to encourage one another, corporately worship the living God and to hear the Word of God proclaimed.  I actually enjoy going to church and I also enjoy preaching the gospel.  But we cannot simply think that we can hole up in a building and love on one another but not love those that are outside of the walls as well.  Our good works may be the thing that reminds some lost soul that God loves them.  However, if on a given Sunday I choose to go to a homeless shelter and serve breakfast and break bread with the men and women that live there, I do not believe that God would be mad at me.