Organized religion vs. personal relationship with Christ...?

Question

If you have an organized religion you believe in, do you also have a personal relationship with Christ?

What are the advantages of being in an organized religion, as oppossed to only a personal reationship with Christ?

If you have only a personal relationship with Christ, what do you feel are the advantages of this, as opposed to attending a church?

please! please ! please! ....NO "there is no God, no Christ, etc." type of answers. This question is for believing Christians.

Answer 1

Attending church is important for fellowship and support. It's good to remain teachable, learn from others who are more mature in the faith. They can sympathise with our challenges better than non-believers, and pray for and with us in times of need. Also we can serve God by serving our fellow man and the church structure offers ways to do that.
Obviously you can have a relationship with Christ without attending church, but where it is availiable we are encouraged not to stop meeting together. Don't expect perfection, but do find a Bible-preaching church. OK, so you may have to take the best of a bad lot if you live in a small town with few options (or, as I do, you live in a country where Protestants or other Christians are in the minority) but it's important to remain attached to the Body of Christ.
But you're right, going to church doesn't do anything for you without that vital relationship with the Risen Christ.

Answer 2

Yes I am part of an organized religion and yes I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I would say some advantages of being in an organized religion would be:
friends
encouragement
reminders of things we shouldn't or should do
fellowship
help others
where 2 or 3 gather God promises to be there with them.
stuctured praise and worship
refreshed spirit

I would say people might think advantages of only a personal relationship would be:
You don't get too involved in activities- no wearing yourself out
No interference from any gossip there might be in the church
No getting up early on Sundays????;)
I can't really think of too many adv. for not attending church.
Hope this helps you out!!!

Answer 3

Good question.

At this point in my life, I belong to an organized religion AND I have a personal relationship with Christ.

For many years, I was brought up in a church where there really wasn't any emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus. It was all "academic" knowledge and praying / singing things that I knew by rote.

When I came to the church that I attend now, I learned what a personal relationship with Christ is, and I have one. I'm still working on it. I think I'll be working on it until the day I die. Now, everything I learned within the context of my "organized religion" has a deeper meaning. I appreciate the organized religion because it gave me the knowledge I needed to understand and get meaning from various things in the Bible and such.

The Holy Spirit, through the epistles of St. Paul, encourages us to come together to worship the Lord and edify one another. I think disregarding this and merely saying, "I have a personal relationship with Jesus and I don't need a church" is not really doing what God wants. I think God told us to come together as a body of believers (organized church) because it will do us good. We gain something from standing together as Christians that we do not get on our own.

Just my thoughts.

Answer 4

I have both!

You MUST have a personal relationship with Christ. Otherwise, at the end of the world He will turn His back on you and say "Depart from me, I know you not."

It's important to remember that we are commanded to be identified with a body of believers. Also, there are things that can happen ONLY in a church:

- The Sacrements. I'm not talking about the pomp-and-circumstance of some religions. Jesus established only two sacrements for the church, and they are not optional for believers: baptism and the Lord's Supper (communion, whatever you want to call it).

- The writer of Hebrews tells us: "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Heb 10:25)
We need the regular rhythm of public worship. Being reassured weekly that your sins are forgiven is a great comfort. Anything less is too trivial to sustain us through life's circumstances.

- The CHURCH is the Body of Christ. As a believer, you are part of it. God has given you (and only you) unique gifts and talents. You are instructed to use them to serve the Body of Christ. As Paul tells us: "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!'" (1 Cor 12:21) A body part detached from the rest of the body is useless.
The Body NEEDS you, and you NEED the Body.

Jesus said the way to find your life is to lose it. When you lose your life to Christ in the church, you are close to Christ himself. A living breathing congregation is the only place to live in a healthy relationship with God. That's because it is the only place on earth where Jesus chose to dwell, and it's the only institution he founded.

Answer 5

God is a God of order.We can see what is happening to our homes today that have no order.But look at the homes that have strict order and you will find them to be as bad as the ones who have none.We must find a balance here.I have a real problem when a church states that they are the "One True Church". Rest assured that man will never ever build a building big enough to hold God in,for the earth is His footstool.
We cannot expect to put God in a box and expect Him to do great things in our life's,homes,and churches.
Churches without any order are of the Antichrist and should be avoided especially by those who are babes in Christ.They are like the Hebrews when in the wilderness built a golden calf and worshiped it.Moses had gone up into the Mount to receive the Ten Commandments and they soon became restless.Moses kept order within the camp,when he was gone, there remained no order.
So in answer to your question: These two cannot go against one another.To maintain a balance it take both of them.Order and the freedom to walk in the Spirit of God.Preconceived idea's that man comes up with may be good,but we need to be careful that our ideas don't quench the Spirit of God.

Answer 6

Yes, it is entirely possible to have a true relationship with Christ while being part of organized religion such as the catholic or protestant faiths. However, I have found that some religions don't focus on that as much as they focus on their traditions and rules and therefore keep this very important fact away from the people who attend their church. Jesus warned us about this. When traditions become more important and eventually meaningless,(saying the same prayers out of memory and repetition without even thinking anymore about what we are praying) our relationship with God is harmed. I now attend a non denominational church where we worship and study the bible (King James or New King James) from chapter to chapter. This has been the best way for me to grow in my faith and relationship with God.
It is important for us to fellowship with other believers and I feel we must attend a church where we can grow. Not a church that caters to us, but one that caters to God, His Word and Will.

Answer 7

I do have an organized religion I believe in but I also have a personal relationship with Christ. The word tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. I can't ride my husbands coattails into Heaven I have to live that life for myself. The word also says for sake not the assemblying of yourselves together even the more so as you see the day approaching. Even Jesus went to the temple. I believe in organized religion but you also in conjunction with going to church need that personal relationship with Christ.

Answer 8

You need necessarily have a relationship with God, there´s nothing you can do with just being in an organized religion.

But, if you have a relationship with God, you may need some kind of support from people, besides you will learn from others experiences and learn about God and the bible in ways you never thought you would.

Take care.

Answer 9

I belonged to an organized religion for many years..but, I never felt "good enough"..never felt I measured up to their expectations. Never was in the "click" so to speak..Since leaving and researching the bible and deep prayer with God and seeking the truth..my relationship is a personal one without church..Many who go to church are not true Christians, deep in their hearts..they do it for show many , but not all. My relationship with God is stronger now than when I belonged to an organized religion..You get it through prayer and reading his word the bible. I feel now that I am doing God's will , not mans. I don't know for sure if God wants us to belong to an organized religion or not..I just hope he has mercy on me and sees my love for him and his son Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Answer 10

If it were not for the Church Christ founded, you wouldn't even know about Christ. You wouldn't have the Bible. You would have no assurance of truth. That's why Christ founded an organized Church with a ministerial priesthood, bishops, sacraments, and a specifically ordained form of worship.