You want to hear some funny mess? More Christians are leaving the church, and deciding to be more "independent" in their walk with God. The first thought that comes to my mind is some Christians don't want accountability. It's easier to leave the church so you won't have to be accountable to other believers. Each believer is responsible for their own walk with God, but the Bible forbids forsaking assembly with his children. Corporate prayer is powerful just like individual prayer because all believers are on one accord. When two or three gather together in My (God's) name, there I am in the midst. Relationships in the body of Christ are about community. God loves to see his children fellowshiping together; that's how he designed it. An individual can worship God on his own, and that it's not necessary to meet with other believers to worship. However, regularly getting together with other Christians for the purpose of worship is the Biblical norm. There are a number of Scriptures that directly state or imply that believers are to gather together. The word “church” occurs over 100 times in the New Testament. It was the head of the church himself, Jesus Christ, who first applied the word to a Christian society. “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). The 'body of Christ', has implied in its meaning, a whole made up of many parts. The teaching concerning spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 concerns the Holy Spirit apportioning gifts to individual members of the ‘body of Christ’ to be used in service for the whole body. Clearly, it is Paul’s teaching that the church functioned as a body made up of individual believers. And it is implicate in this teaching that the individual believer benefits greatly from the ministry of other members of the body – in fact, one would conclude that depriving oneself of this mutual ministry would be to cut oneself off from God’s intended purposes derived from being a part of a local assembly of believers. Some Christians need to stop faking the funk. Just come out and say it: I don't need the church because I don't want accountability. I don't want people all in my business, so I would rather take my relationship with Christ into my own hands. When you get in a bind, DON'T come to the church asking for help because remember, YOU don't need the church.
