If you want a technical by-the-books answer, you are obligated to attend church every Sunday as well as on every holy day of obligation. (Code of Canon Law)

However, in most cases you can remain on the books as a practicing member of a church so long as you receive communion (and confess your sins?) once per year, generally Easter.

I attended Catholic schools K-12 and even though today I'm not particularly religious, I still go to mass on Christmas and Easter.

You're not going to get excommunicated for not going to church, but if you never attend it might be a little disingenuous to label yourself "Catholic/Christian". You can certainly still be spiritual without church and I doubt god will send you to hell for not going to mass, but then again I'm not god and can't really speak for him.

Just know this, if you really love your God, jesus as your savior, you would go to church every sunday to meet him and get closer to him.
Done deal. It is not confusing.
If you question yourself, eh should I go? eh its okay whatever, ill go sometime next time...than you dont really love your God.
I mean unless you have something really important to do, than you should go.
More importantly, doing God's work and following his obedience is more important
You can just show up at church and never learn anything which is just as bad

This post was edited by Riches on Jul 5 2012 10:26pm

The church is a community of disciples or Christ followers. Jesus was in community - he created community everywhere he went. We are to be in community in order to fulfill our mission as Christians.

In facts, if you want to be a real true Jesus follower, nothing on earth need to be necessary more than Mt 25
If we all focus on this, heaven on earth will be possible

This post was edited by nekrotic on Jul 7 2012 06:26pm

The local church occupies an important position in God's scheme of things. It is through the local church that Christians execute certain works. These are works which God commands that can only be accomplished as a group in the context of a local church. To illustrate this, consider the partaking of the Lord's Supper. It is to be done on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7) when the local church is assembled together (I Corinthians 11:20,33). Another example would be the discipline of an unfaithful Christian. This discipline is to be administered by the local church in its assembly (I Corinthians 5:4,5). The Christian is to provoke other Christians and to be provoked by other Christians. This provoking is done in the assembly (Hebrews 10:24,25). Who can deny the importance of a local church? Does not the aforementioned items prove as much?

Paul understood how important the local church was to his Christian life, hence, "...when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples" (Acts 9:26). Obviously, Paul saw the necessity and benefit of being a member within the structure of a local church.

A failure to appreciate the benefits of membership in a local church will cause the Christian to live below his potential. Sadder still, it will cause him to lose his soul.

It is impossible for the Christian to fulfill collective responsibility unless he is a faithful member of a local church. The idea that a Christian can be a member at large, never settling down at one congregation, where he would be accountable, is not acceptable conduct for a Christian. This is tantamount
to 'forsaking of the assembly' and is a failure to support the work of a local church, which equals sin. Yes, disassociating one's self from active participation in a local church is harmful to your spiritual health.

We often hear Christians lament the lack of growth in local churches. Could it be that lack of growth is symptomatic of the mentality that minimizes the importance of the local church? I believe it does! How can we work together to build up the local church if we believe the local church is not important? We cannot!

I am not saying that we should be a member of a local chu-rch that does not respect the authority of God. There have been and are local churches which teach and practice things that are contrary to sound doctrine. To them the Lord says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the work you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent" (Revelvation 2:5). On the other hand, there are local churches which have set themselves to abiding in the doctrine of Christ (II John 9), it is to such a congregation one should join himself.

Dear Christian, if you have been guilty of devaluing the local church, I encourage you to repent. If you have failed in your responsibilities toward the local church of which you are a member, I encourage you to repent. Repent and get busy working within the framework of the local church.

body is the temple and the temple is the church
You don't need a building to be in touch with god

You can make an awesome syllogism with this but it still is inadequate for his question.



This post was edited by Diligence on Jul 8 2012 12:50pm

Your main question: Do we need to attend church?

Jesus calls us to worship together, yes. However, I say no. You don't need to be in a church to take in the Gospel. You could go to a McDonald's, your friends basement, you can worship anywhere. Jesus didn't go around worshiping in fancy high-priced churches now did He? Nope..

The place isn't important, it's the people. Church = people. Whether your church is in your home, at McDonalds, your friends basement, it can be a ministry. The key thing is that when people say "is church necessary", what they are really asking is do they need to worship with others, and the answer is yes. Christ and his apostles did not only stay at home and worship God alone, by themselves, they did so with others in addition to the private worship and thanksgiving.

interesting outlooks to say the least.

This post was edited by Zenlon on Jul 10 2012 10:43pm