Churchless Christians or Flockless sheep or Bodyless body-parts.

Sadly, it’s become a norm within Christianity. Incredibly, it’s a regular thing amid evangelicalism. Embarrassingly, it’s widely accepted among many professing Christians. “I’m a Christian, but I don’t really go to church.”

Churchless Christians. Flockless sheep. Bodyless body-parts.

First century Christians would not have had a category for such a thing. It would’ve been one of the more bizarre phenomena imaginable.

Professing Christians have many reasons for persisting in detachment from a New Testament church. “We’ve been burned.” “We’re still looking.” “We do church on our own.” “There’s no verse that says I need to go to church.” “I haven’t found a good fit.” “I’m too busy.” You could cite more. 

This is something that we should lament as the family of Christ. It’s no small matter. I’m not referring to Christians who would love to plug into a local church, but are prevented by trying circumstances (e.g. debilitating health, imprisonment, a persecuted country, serving in the armed forces, etc.). This is speaking of those who are able but will not.

So, is it inconsequential for the professing believer to remain a flockless sheep? What becomes of them? Does the Bible give any outlook for them? In fact, the outlook is bad. With that, here are a few consequences for those who insist on remaining churchless Christians.

You become unnecessarily unequipped.

In one of the greatest church epistles, Paul lays down a preeminent purpose for leadership in the local church:

[T]o equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:12-13).

Christians need the local church because they need qualified leadership to equip them for ministry. Why? So that God’s people receive the immense privilege and need of building up from other equipped Christians. However, when professing believers remain body-less, they, for the most part, remain equipped-less.

Sure, they can get equipped to a certain extent through churchless Christianity, but only in a limited way. It’s like the guy who thinks he’s getting exercise, but won’t join a gym, and instead built his kitchen fifty hundred yards from his TV room. 

Sure, he’s getting some exercise by trotting fifty hundred yards every time he craves some Flamin’ Hot Chilli dogs, but he’s not going to be doing a triathlon anytime soon. Flockless sheep will get equipped as much as that guy will get in shape.

They can comfort themselves by thinking they’re equipped as they read Christian books, listen to sermons, attend conferences, and the like. But they deceive themselves if they think they’re actually getting obediently equipped God’s way. Why? 

They are not applying what they studying/hearing/reading in the context of a New Testament church; a doctrinally-sound fellowship of regenerate individuals physically present and committed to one another to practice the one another, get equipped, equip others, and express joyful accountability under biblically qualified leadership. 

This is how God designed Christians to work. There is no plan B here. For that reason, a Christian who works fifty hours per week, serves a few hours every other week in his church, reads his Bible most days, reads a few Christians books per year with his church, faithfully attends Sunday worship gatherings and a home group, and is fairly teachable—he is far more equipped than the churchless Christian who devours good Christian books monthly, attends conferences, and can articulate all the doctrinal controversies.

They don’t have the skill in coming alongside those who are suffering like the churched Christian. They lack the ability to compassionately apply the doctrine to the hurting and hopeless. 

They are deficient in the skill of gently rebuking a straying sheep. They lack the ability to helpfully walk couples through premarital counseling and postmarital conflict. They are not equipped in how to obey our Lord’s great desire for unity of the Spirit among the local fellowship. And they certainly are deficient in the skill of humbly walking individuals through the sacred process of church discipline.

Flockless sheep are needlessly ill-equipped; they have this in common to one degree or another. I’ve met some churchless Christians who know a lot of Bible (and pride themselves upon it). But Bible knowledge is only a small fraction of what constitutes a well-equipped Christian. God’s wonderful design is for his children to get thoroughly equipped in the context of vibrant local church life.

You deprive the body of Christ.

In his wonderful kindness, God the Holy Spirit endows every Christian with spiritual gifts. Regeneration, spiritual life, and intimate fellowship with God are not the only benefits to the Spirit’s indwelling. He empowers us with these unique spiritual abilities. Whether you are a brand-new believer, a stay-at-home mom, a pastor, business executive, teenager, or seasoned saint, the Holy Spirit has given you unique gifts to pour back into the body.

Referring to spiritual gifts, Scripture teaches:

“But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:12).

God has targeted every one of his blood-bought children for this high privilege. But, notice, the gifts are not for our own enjoyment:

“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).

With great privilege comes great responsibility. So it is with the spiritual gifts every Christian receives. What is the responsibility? “[F]or the common good.” In the context of 1 Corinthians 12, this means that spiritual gifts are for the building up of the body of Christ. The apostle Paul will continue in the passage to speak of the inter-responsibility that Christians have for one another in light of these Spirit-endowments:

“For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor. 12:14-21).

God saves Christians to become inter-responsible for other Christians within his cherished organism; the body of Christ. In other words, God saves Christians to be churched. If you’ve put faith alone in Christ alone for right standing with God, you are a Christian. 

Metaphorically, you are a body part of the larger body of Christ. Lungs have a responsibility to the stomach, the kidneys, the heart, the brain, and extremities. Hands have responsibilities to other parts. Every body part has a responsibility to other body parts. “Well, I am a part of the global body, so, I don’t need to express that in a local body.” Do you say that in regards to your family? “I’m a part of my family, so I never need to be present with them.” What if your eye said that. “I’m a body part in general, so, I don’t feel the need to express that in a particular body.” Being a part of something means you express it visibly and locally. Those who refuse, end up depriving other Christians of their God-given endowments.

You become unnecessarily awkward.

I have yet to meet a flockless sheep who is not unnecessarily awkward in their social-spiritual mannerisms. It presents in a number of ways. Maybe they are needlessly abrasive. Or they become hyper-introspective. Or they have unnecessarily stunted social skills. Or everyone is wrong except for them. Or they develop a martyr’s complex, where they suppose that all who come alongside them are persecutors.

Why does this happen? Simple. They cut themselves off from God’s means of refining grace. They are needlessly abrasive because they do not have spiritually mature saints coming alongside them to teach them tact and gentleness. They become hyper-introspective because they do not have a local church family to whom they focus ministry and time. They have unnecessarily stunted social skills because they are not learning to develop socially by practicing the one another to a diversity of people in a church. And by depriving themselves of by regular feeding through preaching, they miss that which rounds out Christian character.

There is a sense in which mature Christians will appear a bit awkward to the world. They talk about the risen Christ. They tell others to turn from the world and to him. They love this 2000-year-old book that tells them to deny certain passions. They believe in eternal heaven and hell. It’s a good thing to be seen as a tad weird because of those things. 

But, flockless sheep become awkward and weird, and not in a good way. Churchless Christians should not flatter themselves thinking that they are being persecuted for righteousness when people are concerned about their awkwardness. It’s a bad kind of weird; the kind that results from refusing to plug into the body of Christ.

“Well, people would have thought that Ezekiel was pretty weird, too, so I’m in good company.” You’re not Ezekiel, my friend.

You misrepresent God’s grand plan of salvation.

God’s plan for the universe is so wonderful. Think of it. Prior to creating this universe, he has the delight in his heart to architect a plan to save a people for himself. The triune God has loving unity within himself to carry out the extensive work to do it. Human beings, a creature far, far below him in glory and greatness, will be the object of his loving plan. 

He creates the universe and it declares his glory. Then, he enters creation by taking on creation: he takes on human form. He lives among people who, for the most part, shamefully abuse him. But, he uses it for good—the greatest good—by deliberately receiving the wrath due to their sins. He rises from the grave, ascends to heaven, and reigns. There, he is continually saving his people from every tribe, language, and nation. Moved with delight in his heart for his ill-deserving people, he showers them with extravagant kindness in salvation; a kindness which will last and increase throughout eternity. God’s plan is to redeem a people for himself.


However, flockless sheep mar this grand plan. They misrepresent and pervert the great redemptive plan of God. It’s always been about saving a multitude of peoples; a multitude of age, ethnicity, background, and the like. However, by refusing to plug into a church, you make it all about you. Instead of, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy” (Ps. 67:4), it’s, “Let me, myself, and I be glad.” Instead of, “Make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19), it’s, “Make a disciple of me, myself, and I.” Instead of, “…a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (Rev. 7:9), it’s, “Me by myself hanging out before the throne.” Therefore, those who insist on remaining churchless Christians radically mar God’s manifold redemptive plan.

You are a terrible witness to the unbelieving world.

Again, God’s plan is to save people. Christ came to redeem a multitude from every nation and ethnicity. The beauty of God’s plan is when very different people come together in love and worship under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Thus, the unity they share becomes a powerful witness to the lost. How can people with such socio-economic, physical, ethnic, occupational, and recreation differences have such joyful unity together? That’s what the world sees in the New Testament Church. Further, the love we extend towards one another says something powerful about the Savior we serve:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

“…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21).

You simply cannot do what Jesus is teaching as a flockless sheep. And because you cannot, you are a bad witness to the world.

You are probably not regenerate.

Often, a flockless sheep is actually a goat. Those who persist in detachment from a New Testament church evidence that they are not regenerate. A kidney removed from a body is likely a dead kidney.

“Are you saying that going to church earns my way into righteous standing with God?” Not at all (cf. Rom. 3:21-28). However, involvement in a local church does evidence one’s regeneration.

The Holy Spirit indwells every regenerate individual. As such, he moves Christians to hearty involvement with one another under the accountability of other Spirit-indwelt people. It’s what living body parts do. Christians love to be involved meaningfully with other Christians for biblical preaching, leadership accountability, and consistent one another.

In remaining a churchless Christian, you potentially forbid yourself from entering eternal life. It’s doubtful that someone who persists in refusal to plug into a local church is regenerate. But the good news is, the Lord Jesus Christ loves you. He is a God full of grace and mercy. And he has demonstrated it by leaving the glories of heaven to enter the horrors of our sin. God held him accountable for your sin, and that in full. He rose and reigns. If you would bow and surrender in faith under his lordship, God will allow you to be justified by faith alone and enter into his eternal family. There is no greater joy.

There are more plights for the churchless Christian. But these are enough to forsake the phenomenon and embrace God’s passion for his blood-bought church. Author: Cripplegate