Do You Really Need Church to Follow Jesus?
- The Wholy Christian
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
This question is everywhere right now, and not without reason. Many believers are disillusioned. Some are wounded. Others are simply tired of church structures that feel disconnected from Scripture and everyday life. With sermons available on demand and spiritual content everywhere, it feels reasonable to ask whether gathering with other believers is still necessary to follow Jesus faithfully.
But beneath the surface, this question is not really about attendance, buildings, or programs. It is about how Jesus intended His followers to live once He was gone. It is about whether faith was meant to be lived privately or embodied together. And it is about whether we are willing to let Scripture define the church, rather than our experiences with it.
The Bible does not describe church as an optional supplement to personal faith. It presents it as the environment where faith is lived, tested, refined, and expressed.
📜 Hebrews 10:24
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”
📜 Hebrews 10:25
“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.”
These words were written to believers facing persecution, not comfort. Gathering was not convenient. It was costly. And yet it was non-negotiable.
When Faith Becomes Individual Instead of Communal
Modern Christianity has quietly shifted toward individualism. Faith is often treated as a personal journey, shaped by personal preference and sustained through personal consumption. Many people genuinely love Jesus but feel no responsibility toward the church because their experience of church felt hollow, performative, or controlling.
Scripture acknowledges that religious systems can drift far from God’s heart. Jesus Himself confronted leaders who knew the Law but failed to live it.
📜 Matthew 23:4
“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”
Jesus did not defend broken religious systems. He exposed them. But He never abandoned the idea of God’s people living as a connected body. Walking away from unhealthy expressions of church may be necessary at times. Walking away from biblical community altogether is something very different.
The Church Was Never Meant to Be a Place You Attend
One phrase that often gets repeated is “the church is not a building.” That statement is true, but it is often used as an excuse for isolation rather than obedience. The New Testament does not define the church as a location. It defines it as a people who belong to Christ and to one another.
📜 1 Corinthians 12:27
“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
The early church did not gather around stages, programs, or personalities. They gathered around shared life. They prayed together, ate together, corrected one another, supported one another, and lived on mission together. Faith was not consumed. It was practiced.
📜 Acts 2:42
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
📜 Acts 2:46
“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,”
This is the model many believers are quietly longing for today, even if they do not yet have language for it.
Reclaiming the Heart of the Early Church
This longing for authentic, relational faith is part of why movements like WATCh | We Are The Church exist. Not as a replacement for church, and not as a new system to join, but as a reminder of what the church has always been at its core. Believers, filled with the Spirit, living out faith together in everyday life.
The early church did not rely on centralized power or religious performance. It thrived through shared obedience, mutual accountability, and devotion to Christ. WATCh simply points back to that original design, where believers understood that following Jesus meant belonging to one another.
This is not about rejecting churches or institutions wholesale. It is about remembering that buildings, denominations, and programs were never the foundation. Christ was. And His people were meant to live as His body wherever they were planted.
Why Online Faith Cannot Replace Embodied Faith
Digital sermons and Christian content are valuable tools, but they cannot replace lived community. Watching a message does not invite correction. Listening privately does not require accountability. Consuming content allows believers to remain unseen and unchallenged.
Scripture paints a different picture of growth.
📜 Proverbs 27:17
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
Spiritual formation happens in relationship. Confession requires trust. Encouragement requires presence. Correction requires humility. These things cannot be downloaded.
Accountability Was Always Part of Discipleship
One reason many believers resist church involvement is accountability. Community exposes blind spots. It confronts compromise. It challenges comfort. In a culture that prizes autonomy, submission feels threatening.
Scripture describes it as loving.
📜 Galatians 6:2
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Restoration, not control, was always the goal. When church environments lose that heart, they must be questioned. But the answer is not isolation. It is returning to Christ-centered community.
When Church Has Caused Harm
It must be said clearly that not every church environment reflects Jesus. Scripture never calls believers to submit to abuse, manipulation, or false teaching. Discernment is essential. Leaving a harmful church may be an act of obedience.
But Scripture never presents isolation as the solution. It presents re-rooting in truth.
📜 Ephesians 4:15
“rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”
Jesus remains the head of the church. When churches drift from Him, they must be corrected, not abandoned as a concept altogether.
Final Thought
You do not gather with believers to earn salvation. You gather because salvation reshapes how you live. Christianity was never meant to be lived alone, even when the church has been messy, painful, or disappointing.
Movements like WATCh | We Are The Church exist to remind believers of this simple but profound truth. The church is not something you attend. It is something you are, lived out in obedience, community, and shared pursuit of Christ.
The real question is not whether you need church. The question is whether you are willing to live the kind of faith that requires humility, commitment, and genuine relationship with others.
Ask Yourself:
Am I avoiding biblical community because it is unfaithful to Scripture, or because it requires surrender, vulnerability, and accountability?
Join the Discussion:
What do you believe the church should look like if it truly reflected the heart of Jesus and the model of the early believers?
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