I don't have my notes to hand so I am struggling to remember the persons name who was speaking about a bucket and an ocean. If you fill the bucket with ocean water, the ocean is in the bucket; however if you fill the bucket and leave it, the bucket is in the ocean.
Same with us and church. As a single person, we are a drop in the ocean of Christianity, the bucket is our own church - you take the bucket out of the ocean - separate church from the wider body of Christianty and it potentially struggles to grow. It's the same with us as the bucket and the ocean being our faith/spiritual life. You take yourself out of church/community, separating yourself from those who love and cherish you, and it becomes increasingly difficult to 'top up', to take stuff from the community that keeps your faith growing and getting through the challenges of our weeks at work.
I see young people separating themselves from church and community all of the time... Adults too. It is dangerous.
People often ask... What is the point of church? And state 'you can be a Christian without church'. The truth is you can't, you can't be a fully rounded human without community and the same for faith... God calls us to community with believers and to show others what community in God's eyes looks like. If we're separating ourselves from that, how does that look to those outside of Christianity?
True, you can find God anywhere... Someone recently said 'nature is God's cathedral' that's their opinion... But being with others is God's community, where you can be known, be loved and understood. You don't have to be annoymous in God's creation, in fact, He doesn't want that at all.
