Scripture is clear that God never intends us to live our faith alone. Like the old saying goes, we can learn to shoot baskets pretty well by ourselves, but we’ll never play the game of basketball without a team. God called the church (ekklēsia) into being so we can live out his redemptive purposes together. The church “is not a voluntary association of those with similar interests, choices, and activities; rather it comes into being as a result of God’s purpose and energy” (Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012], 395). For reasons both practical and spiritual, we need one another.
