Can Someone Believe in God but not Attend Church?

EDIT: I am grateful for the honest feedback of a friend, and it prompts me to revise this post, enough so that it warrants re-posting. I don't always get all the things running through my head down on "paper," and sometimes even the things I do get down don't properly convey what I intended.

The first thing I meant to point out yesterday is that the question is very generic. It merely asks if someone can believe in God and not attend church. Well of course he can. But we then dig a little deeper by asking, "But what God are we talking about?" And then we may further explore by asking, "Do you mean a God that I claim to worship? Or does the questioner mean to specifically ask me, as a Christian, is it possible to be a born-again Christian and not attend church?" Either way, the answer is still yes.

The answer I began with was merely intended to point out that a lot of people have a generic concept of God, and that is why I emphasized 'little g' God. The question was generic, so I started my answer along those same lines. There are many secular people who have a vague concept of a higher power that they call God, but they don't really do anything about it. They don't feel prompted to learn more about him/her/it or how we should relate to him/her/it. They keep their God comfortably at arm's length, not letting - I'm just going to stick with him - not letting him impose on their thoughts or actions. And I would submit that that's not God at all, certainly not the one true God. But then my answer after that first paragraph was meant to address the remainder of people who do have a more fully formed concept of God.

This post came from my answer to a question I received on Quora. It was just a little different than my post here, and it was at this point on Quora that I clarified that I can only offer an opinion from the Protestant Christian point of view; I am unqualified for any other. I mistakenly deleted that here. Without that transition, it's possible the jump from my "generic" first paragraph into the following paragraphs unintentionally sent the message that I was saying a "true Christian" attends church and if you don't then you can't be a true Christian. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I want to dispel that notion here and now.

I also meant to include that there are a myriad of reasons that someone may be a true believer and not attend church, ranging from the simple and practical to the much more serious and complex. In his later years, my father was physically not capable of attending. And one of my congregation, a sincere, devout believer, did not attend for a long time due to crippling depression. Thank God he is back among us and participating regularly.

And sadly, there are true believers, sons and daughters of the living God, who have suffered things like abuse at the hands of leaders in their churches. There are people who have been bullied, shunned, victimized by church politics, gossip and backbiting, and much, much worse. There are some that believe their sin is too great, and their guilt prevents them from attending. And quite frankly, we as fellow believers bear the blame for allowing these things to happen and for not providing better care and aftercare for the ones who suffer these kinds of harassments, doubts and/or traumas.

It is just one more testament to the wisdom of God that we are encouraged, not commanded, to attend church. True Christianity is not a works based belief system. Man is a very legalistic creature. The legalism that would spring up around such a requirement is almost unfathomable. We see legalism entirely too much as it is now, and it suffocates the true faith. And any attempt to link church attendance to salvation demeans the true cornerstone of the Christian faith, the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Sadly, that too is an abuse we see all too often as well - people attempt to tie salvation to unrelated, peripheral issues. The simplicity of the Christian faith confounds them.

Scripture encourages us for a variety of reasons to participate in corporate worship as I outline below. Generally speaking, it is in our best interest to attend church. This of course assumes the church you attend is a healthy church with a healthy respect for and adherence to God's word, a church in which parishioners and leaders alike truly love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and love and respect one another as they do themselves. It is actually more detrimental to one's spiritual life to attend an unhealthy church. If there is ever a time I am going to discourage one from going to church, this is it.

Here we join back up with the remainder of the original article with minor revisions from here on out....

From the Christian perspective, I want you in church for two primary reasons: 1) If you are not saved, I want you there to hear the word of God and hopefully be convicted of your sin and your need for a Savior, and 2) if you are a Christian, Scripture provides multiple verses that demonstrate God’s desire for us to come together. Besides, it seems to be common among believers that they desire to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ for their mutual benefit. Their faith is strengthened, their batteries recharged as it were. And quite frankly, birds of a feather flock together. Most individuals, not just in a religious context, enjoy spending time with like-minded people.

Before we look at what Scripture has to say about church attendance, let me reiterate: You cannot earn your way into heaven. You cannot do enough to merit salvation. It isn’t about being a member of a church, being a member of a particular denomination, being baptized, or even church attendance. It is about faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

It's also important to note that the Holy Bible makes it clear that this world is presently ruled by Satan. Second Corinthians 4:4 says that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” - all the more reason I want those who haven’t yet surrendered to Christ to be there. Furthermore, lest we become apathetic, 1 Peter 5:8 warns: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

That being said, what does Scripture have to say about church attendance? Hebrews chapter 10 presents a call to persevere in the faith. Verses 23–25 say, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (emphasis mine). We are at our most vulnerable when we are disconnected from the body of believers. It is easier to persevere in the faith when we do it together. The wolf or the lion makes quick work of the lone prey and so does Satan.

In Matthew 18:20 Jesus promises that “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Now to be fair, this doesn’t necessarily have to be church, but obviously this applies there as well. The point is that the Christian faith is an active, experiential faith, and Christ will honor those gathering in His name by being there. After all, we serve and worship a personal, living God.

And we mustn’t forget that we are all gifted differently; we are not all pastors. Therefore, we should seek one out to our benefit. Pastors who practice sound expository preaching can have significant impact on the faith of believers. Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Where are we going to hear the word? In church. If we can attend in person and be spiritually nourished by the word as presented through a pastor devoted to biblical truth, our faith will be the richer (and stronger) for it. Let’s not forget that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). In the hands of the right preacher, it becomes one very powerful weapon in the spiritual war we fight daily.

One of the most quoted verses of Scripture is Proverbs 27:17: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” We build up and strengthen the body of believers when we encourage one another. This is seen again in Hebrews 3:13 when believers are told to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

The church is not a building or a denomination. The church is the body of believers. Throughout Scripture, the metaphor of a body is used (1 Cor. 12:12), with Christ being the head and the body being the faithful. Each part of a body has a function as a part of the whole. In other words, you are gifted toward some good work within the body of Christ. If you are absent or uninvolved, the body doesn’t function as well as it could.

So you can see that we are encouraged to gather in worship for a variety of reasons. It’s not a commandment per se, but it is in our best interest as far as bolstering our faith and resisting the adversary are concerned. And church involvement, to the extent that you are able, is important to the proper function of the body (of believers). The church's mission is more effectively carried out when all hands are on deck.