Here is a vaccine for the spiritual protection of the joys and benefits of local church life. As churches get used to experiencing church services online via live stream, recognize the dangers of getting used to such a thing. We need to inoculate ourselves against this. I suspect that after this current crisis blows over, we will have many more people comfortable staying home from the Lord’s Day worship. They will feel it's ok to travel and go to “church” online.

It is not ok!

Real churches gather together and they always have. God has commanded His people to meet together in an intensely personal and spiritual manner. He brings His people together – person to person, face to face. 

Biblical local church life engages the whole being. This method which God designed, cultivates personal relationships, stimulates the mind and stirs emotions. It is intellectually stretching and relationally enriching.

In Acts 1:4 the saints are “assembled together in one place.” In fact, the Biblical word, “church,” (ecclesia) means “assembly” or “congregation” of people who gather together. The early church gathered together, in cities where the first local churches were established (Acts 2:42-47). Paul assumes that the church will meet saying, “when you come together,” (1 Cor. 14:26). Luke documents meeting on the Lord’s Day (Ac. 20:7).

Heb 10:25, speaks, to the imperative of meeting together but it is not referring to temporary pauses for emergencies. Rather, it refers to people who are “forsaking.” They are avoiding the gatherings because they don’t prefer them and would rather do something else, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Earthquakes, fires, snow and ice storms and other emergencies may require pausing the meeting. This is legitimate. In other words, it is not sin to pause meeting for unusual situations. Don’t lose your love for the meetings of the church. Innoculate yourself against it. I’ll say more about how to use the vaccine later.

There are many things that happen in personal face-to-face meetings that are impossible in online experiences. When the church meets together it is exposed to dozens of beneficial forces.

Simply driving to church prepares you to meet people and experience the moment and activates your mind. Hopefully you are saying in your heart, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord” (Ps 122:1). The anticipation of being in the same room with your brothers and sisters changes the whole relational dynamic. When we meet in the same room, there are things that happen in our thinking and our feeling that shape us. It is multifaceted.

When we arrive at church, we are met at the door by happy greeters. We are appreciated. Enter the door and we see smiles on faces. We may detect sorrow in an expression and compassion wells up within. We greet visitors and inquire about their lives. We realize that we missed seeing our brothers and sisters and we ask how they are doing.

We hear a member of the body read the Word of God. We hear the sounds of the voices singing – my favorite sound. The whole congregation sings off the same page in unity, drawing us all together with one voice.

We are affected by the different kinds of people we meet. For example if you are seeing a new Christian or someone who is a godly or knowledgeable or holy, it affects you. We relate to them in a particular way. If we encounter someone who is living a worldly life we recognize that and we interact with that person thoughtfully and prayerfully. We relate with children differently than we do senior citizens. We relate with females differently compared to males.

This is totally different compared to seeing a talking head online. We sense that one person might be depressed, or another might be happy. We are forced into uncomfortable situations being alongside brother who may have offended us. There are children and old people, singles and marrieds and all of these interactions are designed by God to supply something that is lacking. There is the subtle impact of sitting next to another person and hearing the sound of their voice.

These online methods are terribly substandard methods of meeting. They simply do not compare with meeting together physically.

So during this present crisis, get on the live stream, but vaccinate yourself with the knowledge of God’s will. Remember what you are missing. Fill your mind with the beauties of meeting face to face to experience the “one another's” as God designed. As you listen or watch online, remember this is temporary. It must be temporary. Resist the drift in your thinking that this is adequate. So, how do you innoculate? Where do you get the serum? What is the process? Stay tuned for Part 10 coming next.

I want to encourage you to inoculate yourself against something. This is kind of a vaccine for the spiritual protection of the joys and the benefits of local church life. As churches get used to experiencing church services online via live stream, there are dangers of getting used to that. We need to inoculate ourselves against this. I suspect that after this current crisis blows over, we'll have many more people comfortable Staying home for the Lord's day worship, they'll feel it's okay to travel and go to church online.

It's not okay. Real churches gather together as they always have. That's what churches do. God has commanded his people to meet together in an intensely personal and spiritual manner. He brings his people together, person to person and face to face.

Biblical church life engages the whole being. This method that God designed cultivates personal relationships, it stimulates the mind, it stirs the emotions, it's intellectually stretching, it's relationally enriching. And that's why in Acts chapter 1 verse 4, the saints are, quote, assembled together in one place. And the biblical word church, ekklesia, means assembly or congregation of people who gather together. The early church gathered together in cities where the first local churches were established.

Acts 2 through 47, they've been doing it ever since. Paul assumes that the church will meet, saying, when you come together. First Corinthians 14, 26. Luke documents meeting on the Lord's day in Acts chapter 20, verse seven. Hebrews 10, 25 urges us, speaking in the imperative to meet together, but he's not referring to temporary pauses or emergencies.

He's referring to people who are quote, forsaking. They are avoiding the gatherings because they don't prefer them and they'd rather do something else. He says, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as the day you see approaching. Earthquakes, fires, snow, ice storms, plagues, and other emergencies might require pausing the meetings. This is legitimate.

In other words, It's not sin to pause meeting for unusual situations. But in the meantime, don't lose your love for the meanings of the church. Inoculate yourself against it. There are many things that happen in personal face-to-face meetings that are impossible in online experiences. When the church meets together, it experiences dozens of beneficial forces.

I mean, even simply driving to church prepares you to meet people and experience the moment and activate your mind. And hopefully you're saying in your heart as you drive to church, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. That's Psalm 122 verse one. The anticipation of being in the same room with your brothers and sisters changes the whole relational dynamic. Very different from online.

When we meet in the same room, there are things that happen in our thinking and our feeling that shape us and it's multifaceted. Like when we arrive at church, we're met at the door by someone, usually a happy greeter. We're appreciated. We enter the door, we see the smiles on people's faces. We might detect sorrow in an expression and compassion wells up within.

We greet visitors and we inquire about their lives. We realize that we missed seeing our brothers and sisters and we ask how they're doing. We see someone who's standing alone and we wanna go see them. We hear a member of the body read the word of God. We hear the sounds of the voices of singing.

It's my favorite sound. The whole congregation sings off the same page in unity. And We're all drawn together with one voice in unity. But we're affected by different kinds of people we meet. For example, if you're seeing a new Christian or someone who's godly or particularly knowledgeable or holy, it affects you.

We relate to them in a particular way. It's good for us. If we encounter somebody who's living a worldly life, we recognize that and we interact with that person thoughtfully and prayerfully. Now this is totally different and foreign compared to seeing a talking head online. We sense that a person might be depressed or another one might be happy.

We're forced into uncomfortable situations. Being alongside a brother or a sister who might have offended us. Or there are children, there are old people, there are singles, there are marriage, there are all these different kinds of interactions. All of them are designed to supply something that's lacking that you never get in an online experience. The impact of just sitting next to another person and hearing the sound of their voice doesn't happen in an online experience.

So online experiences are terribly substandard methods. They just don't compare with meeting together physically. So during this present crisis, get on the live stream, but vaccinate yourself with the knowledge of God's will. Remember what you're missing. Fill your mind with the beauties of the meeting face to face to experience the one another as God has designed.

And as you listen or watch online, remember this is temporary, it's inadequate. It must be temporary. Resist the drift in your thinking that this is adequate. So how do you inoculate? Where do you get your serum?

What is the process? It begins by loving the church the way that Jesus Christ loved his church.