The Christian pulpit is a powerful place that can tempt even the most loving and humble men to speak from their own insecurities and ego and desire to lord it over other people. We have accepted this traditional model of paying a seminary-trained “expert” to spend time with God and then tell us what God wants us to do. I am thankful that you are questioning this practice!

Hebrews 10:24-25 says nothing about worship services, whether Sundays or Wednesdays, and it does not mention frequency, or sermons, or music, or anything else we typically associate with modern-day church meetings. And there’s no mention of frequency…just that we should not forsake meeting together…or location. What it DOES say is that Christians ought to get together with one another for several important reasons: to encourage one another and to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

I believe that we can completely fulfill the spirit of Hebrews 10:24-25 by meeting with other believers on an informal basis just as well as we can by gathering weekly in a building owned by a 501c3 corporation (we like to call it “a local church”). The Spirit of God is not contained in a building…surely God’s people are not to be defined in the same way.

If you choose to worship on Sunday morning with other Christians in a local church, there is no biblical support for requiring attendance on Sunday nights or any other day of the week. Those expectations may be set forth in a 501c3’s constitution and by-laws and enforced by the pastor from the pulpit, so if you have “joined the club” then you may be required to obey the rules of the club as they are interpreted and applied with the consent of the majority. To do otherwise may bring censure and even excommunication in some of the circles I used to run in.

I trust that you will continue to listen to the voice of the Spirit within you…the One Jesus promised would lead us into all truth.

Bill

I have to side with the majority in this conversation. Hebrews 10:25 is not talking about any systematically structured meetings. I agree with your metaphors but disagree with your exegesis.

1 John 2:19 has nothing to do with a ‘local congregation’! It has everything to do with our common faith. As a matter of fact, this verse could very well apply to anyone attending our Sunday morning service – that includes elders and pastors. “They went out from us” could refer to people falling into heresies (no longer clinging to orthodoxy or orthopraxy), or they could have left relationships. In the context of 1 John, I would wager that it could also mean they are not walking in love.

Matthew 18:15-17 does not speak about discipline but about restoration of relationships. The ultimate attempt at reconciliation is not ‘kicking someone out of a coffee shop’ but treating them like ‘Gentiles and tax collectors’. My question to you would be: how did Jesus teach us to treat Gentiles and tax collectors?

Finally, Hebrews 13:17:

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account…”

Obey: peitho¯ – to persuade, i.e. to induce one by words to believe [NOT the commonly used hupakouo¯ - to obey, be obedient to, submit to]
Submit: hupeiko¯ [only instance in NT] – to resist no longer, but to give way, yield (of combatants) [NOT hupotasso¯ - to obey, be subject]
Your leaders: he¯geomai – to lead or to consider, deem, account, think

So Hebrews 13:17 should read:

“Let your selves be persuaded by those who lead you by example of thoughts and deeds and do not resist, but willingly yield to them, for they spend sleepless nights over your soul as one who gives word…”

It is my conviction that most of the so-called leaders of institutional churches are not leaders in God’s Kingdom. Institutional churches lead as the Gentiles do:
“[they] lord it over them; and [they] do so as ‘benefactors’. But it is not so with you, but the one who is greatest among your must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant/bartender (people WITHOUT authority).”
Luke 22:25,26

It’s like a family where there is the person who seems to be in control, telling everyone what to do and how to act. But everyone knows that when the quiet uncle sitting in the background says something, everyone responds because he is the actual leader. The authoritative leaders will get their recognition from people, the true leader is recognized by God himself.

For many years I read the New Testament with the context/filter of ‘institutional church body’ and would have eagerly agreed with you that this is ’so heavily implied in scripture it goes without saying’. I can no longer see this interpretation – ‘it goes without saying’ because it is not said. Everywhere I look throughout the New Testament, I see an organic, simple ekklesia that exists today in another dimension, another realm. Sometimes it exists along side of and entangled with the institutional church of the Sunday meetings but, more often than not, it exists despite this structure. To paraphrase Jesus, “My kingdom is not of this church, if it were …”

Four metaphors are used to describe the church. A body, a temple, a household, and a flock. There are parts of the body. If I cut off my finger it dies and is no longer a part of my body. Each of us is like a stone in the Temple of God. Christ is the cornerstone. A brick sitting on the side of the road is not a part of a temple. Not until it used in the construction of the temple is it recognized as a part of it. Until then it is good for nothing. Everyone that lives in my household shares the same address. We all live together which provides context for our relationship. Finally, fences are used by ranchers everywhere to distinguish one flock of animals from another.

1 John 2:19 assumes that being part of a local body is normative (customary). For whatever reason some of those that were part of the visible church (attendance) were no longer a part of the invisible church (Christians). The implication is that at the very least attendance with John’s church is a visible mark of identification with the church and therefore Christ and at least implies membership in the invisible church.

Matthew 18:15-17 provides a context for church discipline. That would be kind of hard to do in the context of a group of guys getting together in a coffee shop. What are they gonna do, kick someone out of a coffee shop they don’t even own? It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall and listen to the leader explain that one to the cops.

I’d love to hear someone explain Hebrews 13:17 if one is not part of a recognized body. How is the leadership supposed to know who is submitting to them? Do they submit to the televangelist or the guy on the radio? Not likely.

Belonging to a local church body is so heavily implied in scripture it goes without saying. Part of that belonging includes being present. None of the implied verses could be applied without attendence. Saying that scripture does not command us to go to church is like using the regulative principle with regard to breathing. There is no commandment to breathe. Try not doing it and see what happens.