How can professed believers not go or belong to a church?

Sin. The book of Hebrews commands of us both that we not neglect the gathering together of the saints (10:25) and that we remember those who rule over us in the church (13:7). If you don’t go to church, you are forsaking the gathering of the saints. If you are not a member of a church, then you are not ruled over in the church. Thus ends my defense of church attendance and membership. What though are the sins that lead so many fail in these two spots?

1. Laziness.
Though we live in an age of immeasurable conveniences that would make our forefathers green with envy, it does take some effort to get to church. While you’ll be looked down on if you dress up, you do have to get dressed. You have to drive, park, walk. It’s exhausting.

Can’t we get some rest on Sunday? Weird though, isn’t it, that getting dressed, driving, parking and walking don’t seem to wear us out the other six days of the week? If we think the hard work we do six days a week allows us to be lazy on the Lord’s Day, we have admitted what matters most to us.

2. Fear.
It may be social fear, not wanting to interact with others. It may be a fear of judgment. It may be, though I hesitate to use an overused buzzword, PTSD. Maybe someone did us wrong in church in the past. If no one has done you wrong in church in the past, however, that can only mean you haven’t been going.

Everyone in the church has been wronged in the church. Everyone in the church has wronged others in the church. We are, after all, a gathering of sinners. That we have been sinned against is never a license for us to sin. God doesn’t say, “Do not forsake the gathering together of the saints, unless the saints have in the past have done you dirty.”

3. Pride.
None of us likes being told what to do. We especially don’t like being told what to do by other people. To be under the authority of the leadership of a local church means acknowledging that we need such leadership. Just who do these church “leaders” think they are anyway? I hope they think they are precisely what Hebrews 13 says they are, those who will have to give an account for our souls.

It’s easy, and a pretty clear sign that we are likely wrong, to think we are spiritually superior to those who lead in our churches. Our church leaders are indeed terrible sinners, dragging around the stench of their old man everywhere they go. Just like us. When we think ourselves better than those who lead us, we are not only likely wrong, but demonstrate our need for biblical teaching and discipline. Which brings us to…

4. Ignorance.
Many folks haven’t learned enough about all that God requires of us to know He requires of us that we not forsake the gathering together of the saints, that we be under authority. Which is one reason why I’m trying to help, by writing this piece. All believers have a duty first to be in submission to His Word, all of it. It, in turn, reveals the duties we have to gather with the saints, in submission to our leaders.

This is the twenty-eighth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday January 19 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.