By Pastor Stephen Hess –
One of the primary images used to describe the church in the New Testament is the image of a human body. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:12, 27). According to Paul, the people of God form the body of Christ and Jesus is our head. Just as a human body is inseparable from its head, so too the church is inseparable from Christ.
As simple as this truth may seem, I fear that we are losing sight of its significance within American Christianity. In our individualistic society, many people seem to think that you don’t need to be part of a church to follow Jesus. Author Kevin DeYoung used the word “decorpulation” to describe this phenomenon. If the word “decapitation” from the Latin word caput means to cut off the head, then you could use the word “decorpulation” from the Latin word corpus to refer to cutting off the body. In this case, however, we’re not talking about a physical body but a spiritual body—the body of Christ. DeYoung writes, “There is a growing movement among self-proclaimed evangelicals and in the broader culture to get spirituality without religion, to find a relationship without rules, and have God without the church. More and more, people are looking for a decorpulated Christianity.”
I’ve never met a Christian who believed you could dispense with Christ and still have a church. I have, however, met many Christians who seem to think you can dispense with the church and still have Christ. Yet from a Biblical perspective, the head and the body are inseparable. Following Jesus means being part of his church. As author Jonathan Leeman writes, “To be a Christian is to belong to a church. No one gets saved and then wanders around by him or herself, thinking about whether to join a church. People repent and are then baptized into the fellowship of a church. Looking to Christ as Lord means being united to Christ’s people. It’s automatic, like being adopted means you’ll quickly find yourself at a dinner table with brothers and sisters.”
We live in a culture where there seem to be more distractions and demands on our time than ever before. Consequently, some people have begun to deprioritize church attendance because everything else seems more important. But make no mistake: When we choose to neglect the church, it causes spiritual harm to ourselves and to others.
Neglecting the church causes harm to ourselves because the Bible says we each need the body to grow spiritually. Paul writes, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable” (1 Cor. 12:21-22). Our physical bodies have many parts, and each individual part needs the others in order to remain physically healthy. In a similar way, we each need the church in order to remain spiritually healthy. Separating ourselves from the church is spiritual dismemberment and results in a negative impact on our spiritual health.
But neglecting the church doesn’t just cause harm to ourselves; it also causes harm to others. Why? Because Scripture says that each person is an integral part of Christ’s body with unique experiences, abilities, and gifts. When you separate yourself from the church, you are effectively robbing the body of something that it needs! Your absence means our gatherings are robbed of your fellowship. It means our songs are robbed of your voice. It means our Bible studies are robbed of your insights. It means our activities are robbed of your gifts. It means our children are robbed of your children’s company.
Obviously, all Christians will have occasional Sundays when they are out of town and can’t make it to their home church. Additionally, we recognize that some Christians are homebound due to health problems and can’t physically attend in person. Throughout the history of the church, Christians have recognized that when a brother or sister in Christ can’t physically come to our gatherings then it is our responsibility to come to them and support them.
However, the vast majority of us who are able-bodied must recognize that we need the church, and the church needs us. Decorpulated Christianity is not Christianity at all because the head and the body are inseparable. If we care about our own spiritual health and the health of our brothers and sisters in Christ, the church will be our top priority.