In his recent blog post, prominent Christian writer Donald Miller said he has graduated out of the local church and that he rarely attends church anymore. He says he actually feels more closeness to God when he's innovating and starting new initiatives during the week than he does in church on any given Sunday.

One of his hang-ups is corporate worship. Miller wrote this in a blog post, quote, "I have a confession. I don't connect with God by singing to Him. Not at all. I know I'm nearly alone in this, but it's true. I was finally able to admit this recently when I attended a church service that had, perhaps, the most talented worship team I've ever heard.

I love the music, but I loved it more for the music than for the worship. As far as connecting with God goes, I wasn't feeling much of anything." End quote. But clearly it's more than just the music, and it's clear he represents more than himself. For many evangelicals, both young and old, the local church simply doesn't work any longer as a place of worship.

And besides, no local church looks like the churches in Acts anyway, so why pretend that modern churches are of equal value to those in the first century? Those are some of the entangled questions on the table now. So, Pastor John, what would you say to any evangelical Christian who believes that they have graduated from or spiritually outgrown the local church, or who believe corporate gatherings on Sundays simply don't fit their personality type and worship preferences?

Well, there are a lot of issues here that I'm hearing in and between the lines. There's a worship issue and how it's done. There's a personal singing issue. There's a biblical authority issue, and do you submit to your own preferences or to God's Word? There's a definition of church issue.

What is it? There's a cultural issue of where's this kind of unencumbered autonomy coming from that presumes that I have the right to just dictate my own way of life. And so it seems to me there's a pride issue that elevates personal preference over biblical norms. So just a huge batch of issues here.

It seems to me I should just tackle one of these, and that is, is there a biblical warrant, a biblical requirement for belonging to a local church? Belonging, really having a sense of membership and accountability to a church. And here's the way I'm defining a church. A group of Christians who are covenanted together to gather regularly for corporate worship, celebration of the ordinances, ministry of the Word of God, under the leadership of biblically qualified elders, submissive to the discipline of the body, on mission for Christ and the world.

That's a church. And it can have all kinds of big or little expressions culturally across the world. But there are at least five biblical pointers that everybody needs to consider if they want to be biblical, if they want to be submitted to God's Word regarding belonging to a church.

So here they are. Number one, Matthew 18, 15 to 17. "If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along with you so that every charge may be established in the evidence of two or three witnesses.

And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a tax collector and a Gentile." So it seems to me Jesus assumes that his disciples will belong to a church. He assumes that when a disciple is out of step with his brother, then there's a church that can love him and pursue him and, if necessary, discipline him.

Number two, 1 Corinthians 5, 12. "What have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person among you." So from that it seems like there's at least two implications. One is that there is an in, an in the church, and there is an out, outside the church.

And the other implication is that a person can be removed from being in the church. And that informal removal would be impossible. If every Christian could just go around saying, "Well, I don't need the church anyway, so in or out doesn't really matter to me," then Paul's whole teaching falls to the ground.

Third, Hebrews 13, 17. "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they're watching over your souls as those who will have to give an account." Same thing with 1 Thessalonians 5, 12. "Ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, who lead you in the Lord." So church membership is implied, it seems to me, in the biblical requirement that Christians be submitted to a group of church leaders or elders who are qualified to oversee a flock.

Fourth, Acts 20, 28 and 1 Peter 5, 2. Same thing. "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God." So elders have the responsibility to a particular flock. And they should know their flock and watch over their flock.

They're responsible to their flock. How can they be responsible to their flock if the members of the flock consider it optional whether they stay or go or are accountable or not accountable? The whole structure of Peter's understanding of how eldership and church works is, it presumes that people are belonging, seriously belonging, to a flock.

And the last one I'd mention, and not the only five, Ephesians 5, 18, because it was mentioned, sometimes people don't like singing, they don't think it's important, it didn't connect with them emotionally. Ephesians 5, 18, "Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart. So the Holy Spirit fills us and one of His overflows is singing to one another. Not just alone and certainly not not singing. If we're not inclined to sing, and there are lots of people who are not inclined to sing, they're not even wired to sing, but if we're not, I think we should do the best we can as the Spirit enables us to sing and we should look forward to the day, like there's going to be a day when our musical brokenness is healed.

Instead of, you know, boasting and saying, "Well, that's just not me. I don't think music is part of my life and I don't connect with God by singing." Say, "Okay, we're broken. We're all broken." And you humble yourself under the hand of God and you say, "God, I'll make a joyful noise to the Lord and I will look for the day when you tune this instrument to sing your praise as never before." So my conclusion, Tony, is that the New Testament doesn't know any Christians who are not accountable members of local churches.

There are no Lone Ranger Christians in the New Testament. It's a contradiction because a Christian means to be united to Christ and union with Christ expresses itself in union with his body. They are inseparable. To be a hand in the body of Christ, you cannot say to the eye, "I have no need of you." So this gift of belonging to the church is a gift.

Ten thousand times more importantly than it's a duty. It's so sad when people think, "Do I have to do church?" And Paul, I think, would throw up his hands and say, "Have to. Like, have to." This is one of the most precious gifts in the world. Now, my heart aches for people who have not found that kind of fellowship, but I think they need to grow up into Christ and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem by abandoning the body.

Very good. Thank you, Pastor John. And there's a sermon in the Desiring God archive titled, "How Important is Church Membership?" which was preached back on July 13, 2008. You can find it at DesiringGod.org by searching for the sermon title, "How Important is Church Membership?" Well, Jeremiah 17:9 is a verse about the heart, a verse many of us know by heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? But does this verse apply to the regenerated new heart of a believer? Hmm. We'll ask Pastor John that tomorrow. Until then, please keep emailing in your questions to us. You can find those brief and to-the-point emails to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening. . . .