Can you still be a Christian and not attend church gatherings? Is it okay to have services in your house with a small number of people, maybe as low as two or three, and is that acceptable to God?

Dennis

There are many questions about being a Christian that could/do begin with the words, "Can you still be a Christian and not…" Some of these questions are valid, and some that begin with these words are obviously not valid.

You specifically asked "……and not attend Church gatherings?" I presume you mean worship services.

1) There are visible and invisible Christians – i.e. those that we see and identify as Christians (some church goers are Christians and some are not – simply attending church does not make one a Christian any more than sitting in a chicken coop makes one a chicken).

The invisible Christians are those that we do not see and identify as Christians. We do not recognize them because they don’t appear to be doing the "right things – and/or appear to be doing the "wrong" things. But they stand or fall to the Master (Romans 14) – not to us and our human ideas of what is "right" and "wrong."

This does not mean that everyone is a Christian. By no means. In actual fact, there are probably far fewer Christians, visible and invisible, than church attendees.

In order to be a Christian one must accept, believe, and trust in Jesus Christ completely, implicitly, with no reservations. One must surrender to him, obey him, and follow him – otherwise one is not a Christian, but is simply fooling themselves. Christianity is not Jesus Christ plus what we think we should do, our traditions, our ideas, our laws, our do’s and don’ts – it is Jesus Christ only.

Can you be a Christian and not attend meetings in a brick-and-mortar church? Not only is it possible – in some cases it is even necessary, for a variety of reasons. There are many other ways to associate with the body of Christ than in a building, just as there are a variety of churches and denominations -- some more Christ-centered than others.

2) House churches/small groups. Some evidence suggest that this is exactly how the New Testament church started when Christian Jews and Christian gentiles were kicked out of the synagogue by Jews and Jewish Christians. A number of current denominations started as cell groups – the Methodist church being well known for this.

Most Christians believe that small groups and house churches are fine as a form of corporate worship. All churches and congregations need to be accountable, and need to be careful that they do not become so ingrown that they suffer from the lack of insight, experience, and knowledge that other Christians can give. Most of the heresies and unbiblical teachings popular in the 20^th century are simply new twists on age old ideas.

Small groups that do not have (simply by reason of their minimal human resources) sufficient overview, education, background, and experience often fall into the same traps that the body of Christ did hundreds and hundreds of years ago. "Those who do not know the lessons of history are condemned to repeat the same mistakes."

Hope this helps, Dennis.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht