Just as the American Religious scene is filled with “non-denominational” congregations–and that’s not good–so also it is filled with “non-congregational” Christians–and that’s not good either. If you are a Christian, and you are not a part of a congregation, and do do not think that is necessarily a problem, what follows is for you!
Loving Christ means loving the Church (Whether you like the Church or not)!
Jesus said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” John 13:34. This “New Commandment” is not the general command to human beings that we must love other human beings. That would not be a new commandment at all, but the old one, given by Moses, “to love your neighbor as yourself”. No, here Jesus is speaking specifically to His disciples, and He is telling them that they must love “one another,” that is, each disciple-each one whom Jesus has loved-must love the other disciples-all the others whom Jesus has loved. This New Commandment is a command to “love the Church,” and it’s the only “new commandment” Jesus gives.
To be a Christian means to have Christ as your God and Savior, and to have the Church for a family. They go together, Christ and His Church. You cannot have one without the other.
A Christian must love the Church, but not because they like it. In fact, a Christian doesn’t even have to like the Church-although it’s much more pleasant if you do! No, we must love the Church because Jesus loves the Church. And that means that the disciple who doesn’t love the Church must learn to love the Church. Just as much as a Christian must learn to pray and to trust and to worship, the Christian must also learn to love the Church.
Now, the “Church” we are commanded to love is a visible, tangible thing, a collection of actual people, who assemble together. That makes it much harder to love than the “One Holy Christian and Apostolic Church” of the Nicene Creed, which can only be imagined, and can therefore be imagined just the way we like it. An actual congregation of people we must take as they are, and it’s harder to love people the way they actually are than the way we only imagine them to be. But that very concreteness of the Church is also what makes it possible to love the Church. You cannot really love an imaginary thing.
So loving Christ means loving the Church, like it or not. That’s the theology. Now the practical reasons every Christian must be in a Christian congregation.
Practically, Why the Bible is Not Enough
Jesus calls those who believe in Him to discipleship, which means they are not only to believe in Him, but to be true followers of Him, in what they believe, and in how they live. That’s what “discipleship” means. Now, to put the matter bluntly, the Bible alone is not enough to make disciples.
Jesus did not distribute Bibles for people to read. He founded a Church to preach and teach the Word. That’s how disciples were to be made. Discipleship goes from person to person, it doesn’t flow from a book. Disciples, not the Bible, make disciples.
Just as a historical matter, the Bible was not given to individuals, but to the Church as a whole, so that the Church would know what the Word of God is, that it is to be preaching and teaching. In the first place, a Bible had to be copied by hand and was extremely expensive. Few individuals could afford to own one. And in the second place, few individuals could read a Bible even if they did own one. Few individuals could read at all! Bibles were owned by and found in congregations (just as in pre-Christian days the Hebrew Scriptures were found in synagogues). They were not the kind of thing to be found in private homes.
Another reason the Bible is not enough to make disciples is the issue of accountability. We Christians do not get to believe what they want. The Scriptures tell us what we must believe. Thus, the Church and its congregations, bishops and pastors have to be accountable to the Scriptures, to be faithful to them. The problem is, the Bible does not hold people accountable to itself–even people who can read. Rather, people must hold people accountable to the Bible. That’s why the selection and ordination of bishops and pastors in the early church was so very important, and remains so to this day. The leaders and teachers in the Church have to be tested and be found, above all, to be faithful to the Scriptures. That is what lay behind the development of creeds, too. Creeds were simple statements of what the Bible teaches on important matters, and were used to make sure that congregations, bishops, pastors and individual Christians were faithful to the Scriptures in the things that mattered most. The interpretation of Scripture is not, and never has been, the private right of a congregation, or of a bishop or pastor, or of any individual. No one is free to conceive of Jesus and the Kingdom of God however they want. Rather, all Christians are to be accountable to their congregations, bishops and pastors for what they believe.
Lastly, the Scriptures were simply not designed to be a handbook for individual discipleship, and they are ill-suited to that purpose. The Scriptures are ancient documents filled with all kinds of things that are of little use to an individual Christian. To master its contents adequately enough to be able to sort out what is most important so as to teach and preach requires a great deal of specialized learning, skill, and frankly, a lot of time. Those charged with teaching and preaching in the Church are expected and required to have the learning and the skill, and to spend the time, to do that.
To Sum It Up
What can we say about an individual who wants to be a Christian, but who wishes to have no association with a Christian congregation, who wishes to be self-taught simply by reading the Bible, who wants to worship in their own way according to their own conscience and their own reading of the Bible, and to be answerable to no one but Jesus (as they understand Him) for their beliefs and practices? I will not pass judgment on whether this person is or is likely to be saved. I will only say this: Theirs is almost certainly a very idiosyncratic faith, probably very much unlike the faith and practice of most other Christians on earth. The simple truth is that the Christian who remains unaffiliated with any Christian congregation is not practicing the Christian faith; they are not keeping the New Commandment. Moreover, being accountable to no one else, they are placing a great deal of confidence in their own mind and in their own heart to discern what is right and what is wrong, and that is a dangerous place for a person who wants to be a Christian to be.