A while back I was given a book written by George Barna entitled Revolution. For those of you not familiar with Barna, he is a Christian stats guy and he and his group have reported a lot of helpful statistics about the state of things within the church and with nonbelievers in the world.In this book, what Barna does is he reports on a group of believers that they have studied that he calls “revolutionaries.” He explains that their main focus is on their relationship with God and that they really don’t see the church as necessary.
Now like I said, the stats that Barna reports about the rise in this group of people and their mentality is very helpful to pastors and church leaders. The problem with this book is that the prescription Barna gives is not. In fact, I would say that Barna’s prescription is worse than his diagnosis. What Barna basically says in this book is, “No big deal." He even makes a push for Christians to accept the fact that people are seeking to follow God outside the church walls.
There is a major issue I have with this prescription. It’s just not biblical. What we discover as we read God’s Word is that one of the key ways for us to grow in Christ—one of the key ways to mature in our faith is through valuing relationships and connecting with God’s people in His church.
The phrase “one another” is used over a hundred times in almost every book in the New Testament. How can we be obedient to God by "Loving one another, submitting to one another, encouraging one another, building one another up, exhorting one another, showing hospitality to one another, praying for one another, not speaking evil against one another" if we do not associate with one another?
Truth is we can’t. Living in community with God’s people is not optional, it's essential if we want to be like Christ.
