Is It Important for a Christian to Be a Member of a Local Church?

It is not that uncommon to meet people who say that they are Christians but that they don’t get involved in any local church. Some of these people make no effort to interact with other Christians at all, not even on the internet. Others do things like join church services online but don’t physically go to services or meet with other Christians.

The value of meeting with other Christians

Importantly, the Bible knows nothing of Christians going it alone, and it everywhere assumes that they will physically meet with other believers as and when they are able.

On this topic, Hebrews 10:24-25 is especially relevant, where the author writes:
‘And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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’ (ESV).
This passage is clear about the value of Christians meeting up, presumably to do Christian things together like worship God and pray.

Unless someone is housebound, there seems to be no good reason not to go to church gatherings. And even in the case of someone who is housebound, they should typically have Christian fellowship by receiving other believers into their home.

Joining services on the internet is better than nothing, but it is very inadequate. Meeting online is just no substitute for fellowship in the actual presence of other Christians.

In recent times we saw something similar during the Covid pandemic. Friends and relatives were often separated for long periods of time and met up to video-chat on the internet, but it just wasn’t the same as meeting in the flesh. In the same way, Christian fellowship is just deeper and more meaningful when God’s people are physically together.

Complaining about the state of local churches

Sometimes people who don’t get involved in a local church try to justify this by pointing to what they believe are serious faults in churches in their area.

I have never been convinced by this, and I think these people tend to be very judgmental and have unreasonably high expectations. Often, many of their criticisms of churches are right, but they go too far in the way they rule out all churches in their area as apostate.

I can remember some time ago speaking to a Christian man in Edinburgh who said that he and his wife were not involved in any local church because ‘none of them preach the gospel.’ In a city that had literally hundreds of local churches, this was just nonsense. Even if 90 percent of them were very poor churches – something that may well have been true – that would still have left more than a few to choose from.

The value of having one local church as a home

There are some Christians who do meet up with other believers in their area at church services, prayer meetings, etc., but they aren’t members of any one church. Instead, they get involved in multiple churches without making any one of them their home church.

So what should we make of this?

I think, firstly, it is much better for Christians to be members of a particular local church, to have that as their base, as their home. If these people find themselves in difficulty, it helps to know which church is responsible for helping them. And if they need to be disciplined in some way, again, it helps to know which church is responsible.

But secondly, if someone does have one church as a home, there is certainly nothing wrong with also being involved to a lesser extent in other local churches too. It really makes no sense to think that God’s people in an area should avoid meeting up with other Christians at various times and for various purposes just because the other believers happen to be members of other local churches.

Formal or informal membership?

Another relevant issue is whether membership of a local church should be formal or informal. Should people sign a piece of paper to become a formal member of a local church, or should this all be informal?

I would suggest that making things formal is the better thing to do, for the purposes of church discipline.

If professing Christians in a church are unrepentant of serious sins, they need to be put out of the fellowship, to try to encourage their repentance (e.g., 1 Cor 5:1-5), and it is easier to sort all this out if these people are formal members of that church.

The Bible refers to non-Christians coming along to Christian gatherings (1 Cor 14:23-25). These people would typically be unrepentant of various sins, but they should not be discouraged from visiting.

In a situation where there is informal membership of a church, professing Christians who are unrepentant of serious sins might try to avoid being put out of the fellowship by claiming just to be visitors, hoping to take advantage of any grey areas that exist as regards who exactly is a member of that church. However, if they have formally entered into membership of that church, there would be no way for them to use this ploy.

About the Author

Dr. Max Alpin has been a Christian for over 30 years. He has a Ph.D. in New Testament from the University of Edinburgh. He is a UK national and currently lives in the south of Scotland. Check out his blog, The Orthotometist, at maxaplin.blogspot.com

Article Source: https://articles.faithwriters.com/reprint-article-details.php?article=45114

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Disclaimer: This is republished content used with permission from FaithWriters.com. This article was originally published on June 20, 2025. All views expressed are those of the original author and not necessarily those of Thrive Christian Press and The Believer’s Byline.