Protestant Christianity is facing considerable pressure to re-define itself in the modern era. This has simply come to more of a head during recent events. Sadly, many evangelical church leaders have favored pragmatism to orthodoxy … even going so far as to advise the government that corporate church services (central to the Christian faith) are essentially social gatherings and should be treated as such.
But unfortunately, the church’s view of corporate worship has been disintegrating for a long time. Even before 2020, many Christians regularly chose to neglect the Sunday gathering of God’s people, arguing that they weren’t Sunday Christians but 24/7 Christians – they worship God at all times (Rom. 12:1-2). This was a bad excuse though because God never taught that personal sanctification and all-of-life worship was to replace corporate worship; rather it was to underpin it.
Another reason that people choose to neglect the gathering of God’s people is that they ‘don’t get much out of it’; people here justify skipping church because they can find ‘spiritual food’ elsewhere. This particular line of argumentation is an appealing one for those who, these days, feel more ‘edified’ if they stream a service from their lounge rather than attend their local church. After all, the internet provides a smorgasbord of much better preachers than what your own neighborhood boasts – and if you can learn more about God from your couch than the pew, why physically go to your local? As an added benefit, you can even fit your