You were created for community

In their book Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon say that, "American Christians have fallen into the bad habit of acting as if the church really does not matter as we go about trying to live like Christians." I think they present a valid critique of the way many Christians today view their role in the church. The importance of the church in the life of the Christian could scarcely be overestimated. The church forms community that provides the support and authority necessary for individual believers ultimately to be successful in their Christian lives. Those Protestants who downplay the importance of the church may well have taken the Reformation ideal of sola scriptura too far. For while Scripture is the only infallible guide to Christian faith and life, it is clear from those Scriptures that the church is to function as the community which binds believers together into the Body of Christ, and serves as a moral and spiritual authority—though not infallible—in the life of the Christian. It is true that the church—or more precisely, various local congregations—have often failed to function as the community they were intended to be. As a result many believers have felt hurt and absented themselves from that community. While this sort of hurt is understandable as a human response to an imperfect church, it does not excuse those believers who have been hurt from participation in the community. Each of us must continually remind ourselves that we are members of the Body of Christ because of who we are, not because of the benefits we obtain from that membership. Indeed, participation in the community of God is something for which humans were created; to the extent that we do not participate in the community, we fail to fulfill one of the purposes for our existence. And when we do not enjoy the community for which we were created, we are often tempted to look elsewhere for what prove to be poor substitutes.