Body Life

I have been reading and discussing what is really important with regard to church services. There are all these discussions about what is the best form for church and then all these discussion saying the church is irrelevant that the only thing that is important is our relationship with God.
Sometimes I get the feeling like some people think that fellowship with God is all we need. Yet even with the first man before the fall... God said it is not good that man should be alone. We need each other nearly as much as we need God. Some how people think a church service meets the need. It really doesn't in fact as of late... I have been talking to people at the church I attend about this very thing. Their relationships with each other in the front facing, one or a few guys doing all the talking kind of service really limits the possibilities of building relationships with other parts of the body. The bigger the service the harder it is to get to know someone. Even a home group/church offers only so much opportunity to build the intimacy that is necessary to make a "body". When I say body, I mean a group of believers functioning together to carry out God’s purposes by using the giftings He has given each of them to support and encourage each other so that they might carry out what ever it is that God is calling them to do.
Now I also attend meetings of a different kind (there are three of us) offer that intimacy as far as men can have, but we also need to see that we are part of something bigger. We cannot discount any kinds of these meetings because each has its own function. I thought a Promise Keepers event was awesome. I've never been to anything like my first one... but it lacks intimacy. But it gets you a bit charged up seeing the size and the potential of the Body of Christ. The author of Hebrews also says that it is not a good thing to keep from meeting. There is a necessity in our meeting in various sized groups to accomplish some of the body functions that God has put in each of us for the sake of the others. But there is not one answer. All of it is pointless though without the relationship with the Father, through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. And yes we need not necessarily have a group meeting to experience God's presence. But some times that is exactly how He does it. God is mysterious. Why is it that some people have the God experience in their closet and others or at other times it is experienced in the communion of saints? God only knows... I think this comes back to a friend’s discussion about our personal history and experience. Too often we think ours is the only experience that counts. If it failed for us it will fail for you. Or if it worked for me it should work for you (or there may be something wrong with you); which doesn't lead me any closer to an answer than "God ways are mysterious." We want a formula so that we can be successful. God wants worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth, whatever the venue.
Lets us worship together the Lord of creation striving together to build up each part so that it can do its part in God’s manifold plan for his church and this world.
Amen, P.A.