Attending church meetings  

hi there, 2timothy..

I don't think any Christian can "survive" without the church. In fact, the "church" is the brotherhood or the fellowship of believers, not the structure or building.

I think many Christians think they can do well on their own without the church because probably still in the process of trying to understand God in their own terms. Personally, I went through a period of "isolation" for a certain period of my life. I was thinking that because it is our relationship with God that matters, not religion, I thought that I can do well on my own. However, this is very dangerous and it can do more harm than good.

For one, the Bible encourages us in Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how me may spur one another toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

We need to be accountable to our brothers and sisters in the faith. We are also to mutually encourage one another through our lives. WE cannot do that if we do not have a "spiritual family," to go to. And it is even in the Bible that "A cord of three strands cannot be easily broken," meaning, as we are all part of one Body but of many parts, we are to complement one another for the growth of the church. The enemy, the devil, will always be around looking for someone to devour and we are much stronger when we pray together, as Jesus has said, "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them."

Pity the one who has no friend, for when he falls, there is no one to pick him up. IN the same manner that "no man is an island," no Christian is an island.

happy myLotting! :)

Yeah, I think dreamleaper is right! Sometimes we misunderstand the word "church", church is not only the churching building, but also the fellowship and relationship between brothers and sisters.

Indeed, some Christians do think they can survive without church. I think it may be 2 reasons as I know.

Firstly, some Christians think "church" is just "church building", and they also stare at other Christians' sins (I mean may be the wrong or bad behaviors), so they leave the "church building" and worship God in some family fellowship.

Secondly, they are too pride and self-confident that they can worship God and study God's words, etc by themselves alone. Once our paster told us this method is common in buddhism and Taoism, but for a Christian, life with fellowship is quite important.

Actually, I just speak as a Christian stand, I cannot leave fellowship indeed. Sometimes, when I was weak or in trouble, then I cannot be concentrated on Bible, it's quite hard to overcome it by myself. I often called sisters and ask for help! Then they pray for me or we gather together in church.

But it's a process, I think, when we are babies in our belief, we will misunderstand many things, but when grew up in belief, we will believe in God more and more. Come back to your post, they will know how important the church to every God's kid.