As I am writing this, it has been over 50 days since the people of Bethel Bible Chapel have gathered for worship. Seven long weeks, with more on the way. It has been a dramatic change in the rhythm of my family’s life and we are longing and praying for the day when we can again gather with our brothers and sisters in person to worship God.

However, this season of forced isolation has caused some creativity. We are streaming our services online, our small groups are meeting virtually, and people are spending time with their families that they never had before. Some of us have gotten used to a little more sleep on Sunday morning. So, the question is, why do we gather at all? If we can do all of this from our homes why don’t we just keep doing that and save some time and never risk getting each other sick again? It’s a question many are asking right now so I want to address why the Christian Church has always made physical gathering a priority. The gathering of the saints of God is critical to the health and flourishing of God’s people, yesterday, today, and forever.

Gathered by Design

The first reason the Church gathers physically is because God designed men and women to be in community with each other.

In Genesis chapter 2, God has created the world and Adam, the first man. He placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, a perfect paradise that God has said is “very good.” However, in verse 18 of chapter 2 God makes the first negative moral statement about the world he has created: 

It is not good that man should be alone.

In a perfect sinless world where God and creation were in perfect harmony, God saw that something was wrong. The image bearer he had created was alone. So, God went on a mission to find a helper for the man. The story continues in verse 20 of chapter 2,

The man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

No animals, not even a loyal yellow lab like my in-laws have, was “fit” for Adam. As a side note, this is an argument for why “church” cannot be you and your fishing pole. God decreed that fish were not good companions for you in the worship and enjoyment of God. So, to fix this problem God creates the woman. A perfect companion for Adam in his worship, work, and walk. The man and woman are given the task of filling the earth with their offspring and asserting the image of God all over the blank canvas that was the infant world. And it was very good.

From the very beginning, men and women were created to be together in enjoying what God has created. Not isolated, not forced to be alone with a select few, but together with other image-bearers united in the purpose of praising God for his good gifts and encouraging one another to follow God’s ways. That is the first reason we gather, God made us that way.

Gathered by Definition

A friend of mine recently posted online a simple summary of the word that is used in the Bible for “Church”. In the Greek text of the Bible the word we translate as “Church” is ekklēsia (ἐκκλησία). It is used throughout the Bible and in non-biblical Greek texts as well and means, “a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly.” The words comes from the word meaning “to call” and can be translated as “called out ones”.

This means, that the very definition of what it means to be a Church is: we get off the couch, we get dressed, we get the kids in the car, and we go somewhere to be with God’s people. God chose the word very carefully. He could have said his people were the “confessing ones” or the “logging on ones” but he chose “called out ones”. This has a spiritual meaning as well, we are called out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 1:29), but we are also called out of our homes to be together to worship God.

I have heard a lot over my lifetime and increasingly over the past few months, “the church is not the building, it’s the people.” That is very true. But what we have learned from this coronavirus crisis is the Church may not be the building, but it sure helps to have a building. Gathering as a church of 400 people on Sunday is not easy in someone’s home, the weather is too extreme in Northern Ontario for us to do it in a park, and lucky for us we found an old bingo hall with ample seating and parking to allow God’s people to be the ekklēsia. The Church. By definition, the Church is those who are gathered together to worship and enjoy God.

Gathered by Command

Hebrews 10:24-25,

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.

This verse has had such an impact on me. Church was always something I did, not by conviction, but by habit. I grew up going to Sunday morning services, Tuesday night prayer meetings, and a weekly kids group. Church was where my friends were. When I grew up and went to university, I suddenly had a choice to make. I didn’t have the family with me, I didn’t have the friends to see. I was alone on Sunday morning. So I went alone. I made friends and sung and sat with God’s people, even though I didn’t know their names.

In that season I don’t think Hebrews 10:25 was in my mind explicitly, but the spirit of that text was. If I miss out on going to Church, I am missing the enjoyment of God, fellowship with his people, and growing dull in my sense of His return. 

Christians gather because we are told to gather both in explicit commands like the one above and in the model of the Apostles. Acts 2:42,

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

And Acts 20:7,

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people…

The pattern of the early Church until 50 or so days ago has been to gather on Sunday morning for fellowship, teaching, worship, and the ordinances of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. We didn’t make this pattern up in the ’80’s. Christians believe the model and words of the Apostles command us to gather physically as a Church body to facilitate the communal worship and enjoyment of God. A command we are eager to obey again.

Gathered in Expectation

When the Church gathers it is also a rehearsal. The Lord’s prayer, one of the best-known passages in all the Bible in Matthew 6:9-10 says, 

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

One of the goals of the Christian life is to reflect and manifest the realities of heaven to this watching and wanting world. So, this begs the question, if our request is for earth to be like heaven, what does heaven look like? Isaiah 6:1-4,

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Revelation 5:11-14,