THE NECESSITY OF THE LOCAL CHURCH (Santamaria)

 

The Necessity of the Local Church

Start with this: the New Testament doesn’t even know the category “Christian, but not joined to a local church.” That’s already a big theological clue.

We’ll look at this in two parts:

• What the New Testament actually shows and requires
• How you might talk to that Christian

1. What the New Testament actually shows

a) Believers are added to concrete churches

After Pentecost:

“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41)
“And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:47)

Added to what? Not to a mystical database in heaven, but to the visible Jerusalem congregation. There is a discernible “them” you can be added to.

And immediately you get:

• They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers (Acts 2:42).
• Their life is ordered as a body: they’re together, sharing, identified as a community (Acts 4:32).

In the rest of Acts, believers are not just “Christians at large,” but attached to specific churches:

• The church at Jerusalem (Acts 8:1)
• The church at Antioch (Acts 13:1)
• The churches of Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, etc.

Letters are written to assemblies in particular places, and those assemblies have boundaries.

b) Church discipline makes no sense without membership

Try to do Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 without a real, defined local body.

Matthew 18:15–17:

• If a brother will not hear the two or three witnesses, you “tell it unto the church.”
• If he will not hear “the church,” he is to be unto you as a heathen man and a publican.

That presupposes:

• A particular congregation that can hear and act
• A knowable line between “inside” and “outside”

1 Corinthians 5:12–13:
“What have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”

You cannot have “within” and “without” without a recognized “us.”

If a Christian says, “I’m not really in any church,” then:

• No church has standing to discipline them
• No church can restore them
• They escape the very structure Christ gave for correction and care

That’s not “extra spiritual”; that’s structurally disobedient.

c) Shepherds and flock imply a defined relationship

Hebrews 13:17:
“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account…”

Two questions for the “I don’t do local church” Christian:

• Which specific men are watching for your soul as those who will give account?
• To which specific shepherds are you obeying and submitting?

If the answer is “no one in particular,” then this verse is functionally void.

Likewise:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13 – “Know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you.”
• 1 Peter 5:2–3 – Elders are to “feed the flock of God which is among you… being ensamples to the flock.”

Elders are set “in every church” (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). No elders without churches, no churches without flocks, no flocks without actual “among you.”

To reject committed belonging is, in practice, to reject Christ’s appointed structure for shepherding.

d) The body language is local, not just universal

Yes, there is the “one body” in the universal sense (Ephesians 4:4). But when Paul works out the practical life of the body, he’s talking about concrete congregations.

Read 1 Corinthians 12–14:

• The body analogy (“the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee”) is written to a single local church (1 Corinthians 1:2; 11:18; 14:23).
• The gifts are for their gathered worship: “when ye come together in the church, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine…” (1 Corinthians 14:26).

If someone says, “I’m part of the body of Christ, I just don’t belong to any local church,” they are affirming the metaphor and denying its actual New Testament form.

e) The Lord’s Supper assumes a gathered church

1 Corinthians 11:18, 20, 33:

• “When ye come together in the church…”
• “When ye come together therefore into one place…”
• “Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.”

The Supper is not “me and Jesus at home when I feel led.” It’s an ordinance given to an assembled church, which again presupposes:

• An identifiable “we”
• Mutual responsibility (“tarry one for another”)
• An ordered pattern of gathering

The person who refuses any binding commitment to a local church is voluntarily excluding themselves from the normal New Testament pattern of Word, ordinances, and discipline.

f) The church is a household, not a meetup

1 Timothy 3:15:
“…the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

A household is not a loose network of unrelated people who occasionally bump into each other. It has:

• Structure
• Order
• Recognized members
• Discipline

The Pastoral Epistles are basically a manual for how that household is to be ordered: bishops, deacons, widows enrolled, accusations handled, etc. That’s not “vibes-based Christianity”; that’s institutional, visible, communal life.

2. How you might respond in conversation

In responding to someone who rejects local church membership, you want to keep three things together: sympathy, Scripture, and specific questions.

a) Acknowledge the real issues

Many “unchurched Christians” are reacting to:

• Abuse of authority
• Hypocrisy and worldliness
• Shallow, program-driven churches

You can say frankly: “Yes, the New Testament churches themselves were often a mess (Corinth, Galatia, the seven churches in Revelation), and Christ still calls them churches, rebukes them, and walks among them. The answer to bad churches in Scripture is never ‘no church,’ but ‘repent, reform, or join one that’s striving to walk in order.’”

So we don’t defend dysfunction. We defend Christ’s order.

b) Clarify what “membership” actually means

You can say something like:

“Forget the word ‘membership’ for a second. The New Testament picture is simply this: believers in a place gather regularly, under recognized shepherds, share the ordinances, bear one another’s burdens, and exercise discipline. The modern word ‘membership’ is just our way of saying: I am part of this flock, under these elders, with these brothers and sisters, to whom I’m accountable and among whom I serve.”

Then ask:

• “Is there any church on earth of which that is true of you?”
• “Who could rightly admonish you and, if necessary, carry a matter to ‘the church’ in your case?”

If the answer is “no one,” that’s not normal by New Testament standards.

c) Use Scripture to frame the problem

You might walk them (briefly) through:

• Acts 2:41–47 – people saved, baptized, and added; continuing steadfastly in doctrine, fellowship, ordinances.
• 1 Corinthians 5 – inside/outside, discipline.
• Hebrews 13:17 – obey those who watch for your souls.
• 1 Corinthians 12–14 – body life and gathered worship.
• 1 Timothy 3:15 – church as household and pillar of truth.

Then say something like:

“I’m not asking whether you’re a Christian. I’m asking whether your current pattern of life exists anywhere in the New Testament. The apostles do not imagine believers floating unattached. The normal path of obedience to Christ includes being joined to a concrete assembly.”

d) Address the “Jesus and me is enough” line

You can answer gently:

“Union with Christ is absolutely enough for salvation. But the same Christ who saves you also commands how His saved people are to walk. The Shepherd who carries the lamb on His shoulders also places that lamb in a flock. To refuse the flock while claiming to follow the Shepherd is a contradiction the New Testament never blesses.”

Or shorter:

“Yes, Christ is enough. But Christ is not a bachelor. He has a bride, and she has congregations.”

e) Not law-keeping, but obedience of faith

Finally, make clear you’re not saying, “Join a church to be saved.”

You’re saying more like:

“Because Christ has saved you, He calls you into the life of His body. That means a real church, with real people, real mess, real love, real discipline. The New Testament pattern of discipleship is not: ‘just you and your Bible in perpetual independence,’ but ‘you and your Bible in the household of God.’”

Then you can invite them, not to a vague ideal, but to seek out a biblicically ordered congregation and actually bind themselves to it.

Bottom line

The New Testament doesn’t give you a sentence that says, “Thou shalt sign a membership roll,” but it gives you something much weightier: a whole structure of life that only makes sense if Christians are formally, mutually bound to actual local churches. The “free-agent Christian” is not a deeper, purer New Testament model; it’s a modern invention that lives largely outside the apostolic pattern.