I KNOW OF SO MANY PEOPLE at the present time who are heartily wanting to find some solid fellowship with other faithful disciples of Christ but they are finding it either extremely difficult or downright impossible. And who can blame them! By far the greater part of the entire visible church today is a broken circus, involving either rigid legalism (‘heavy shepherding’), anything-goes ‘woke’ liberalism (essentially involving the mainstream denominations), wishy-washy evanjellycalism (boring, sit-on-the-fence-about-everything, middle-of-the-road, easy-believism), dispensationalist ‘evangelicalism’ (the rigid J.N. Darby/Plymouth Brethren/Dwight Moody/Scofield Bible/Pre-tribulation rapture eschatology bandwagon), or the ubiquitous rabid charismatic pentecostalism (‘Christianized’ witchcraft and shamanism). From all these type of mental institutions you must run a mile at speed. They will only encourage you if you love to live in Cloud-Cuckoo Land.

A big element in this is that people want to find a fellowship which tells them what their itching ears want to hear — or where they can indulge their addiction to subjective experience —  rather than diligently seeking out a spiritual home which only deals in the truth (even if they find it uncomfortable) and which contains people who are genuine and curious and who are not hidebound by rigidity or bandwagons. So many churches thrive on attracting people who want to conform to a pattern — no matter how nutty that pattern is — and to be accepted by a group for their imagined social needs, that it becomes very easy to create a church, no matter how wayward that church is. But all that has happened with the above branches of the visible church is that they have really become mini-cults masquerading as genuine fellowships and suckering many into them.

So what are the good hallmarks to look out for as being a desirable fellowship to be part of and what are the red flags which should make one avoid them?

1) Avoid huge mega-style churches as they tend to become powerbases for proud pastors and are based on an entertainment theatrical model which loses the personal ‘local’ identity necessary for good evangelism. That is not the way of Scripture. Instead, seek out a comparatively small but faithful group of believers whose hallmarks are simplicity, authenticity and a healthy sense of non-conformity. What I mean by that last phrase is that there should be no expectation for everyone to be the same, look the same, dress the same, speak in the same clichés, follow the same people, read the same Bible version, etc. There is room for individuality. If a woman turns up with purple hair, that is her prerogative. Her faith does not depend on it. If a guy pitches up wearing an earring, that is his prerogative. His faith does not depend on it. If someone who is nevertheless devout “goes to church” in comparatively informal attire, that is their prerogative. Their faith does not depend on it. If someone has a more bohemian, less conventional lifestyle than others in the fellowship, if no sin is being committed then that is their prerogative. Their faith does not depend on it. People need room to develop as individuals not as clones in a cultlike atmosphere!

2) If you find a promising-looking fellowship, do not allow yourself to be pushed into signing on the dotted line in some kind of formal membership. When you first go to a fellowship, very often the people running the show will be “all over you” and always trying to get you to “join” formally. (Remember how cults ‘love-bomb’? Well, it happens in churches too). I have counselled so many people in this situation. They made the mistake of formally joining a church and then the attitudes changed. Afterwards, those in authority became more controlling, trying to get you to stop doing this and making you do that — dictating to you who you should and should not be associating with and so on. Now that they have you in what you think is a contract, they think they own you. They call it “covering” or some such nonsense. Or they say that you are now “under their authority”. But you are under God’s authority and no elder should be “lording it” over you (1 Peter 5:2-3). You should be free to worship and learn and fellowship in that church setting until and if you want to take things further… or not. When people have been damaged, trust can take a long time to develop, and it should be allowed to do so.

3) Ideally, you want to find a fellowship which has appointed elders and deacons in a biblical manner, and which additionally respects the biblical serving ministry of women. There should be a solid, humble teaching ministry in the fellowship which mostly goes through books of the Bible rather than continually dotting around from one random text to the other. The elders, pastors and teachers should be wise, mature, empathic, well-versed in Scripture, authoritative without being authoritarian, and deeply spiritual. A problem is that when people first enter a fellowship, they don’t see all the duff interpersonal dynamics which are endemic in a bad church. Most people in a church with underhand and manipulative elders are entirely unaware of what takes place behind closed doors. It takes much discernment and perception and dogged footwork to discover what is really going on behind the scenes. Usually, once you find out, you will be ‘toast’ and the knives will be out for you. Such men brook no criticism or exposure. I can honestly say that the nasty professing “Christians” that I have encountered are far more nasty and destructive than any nasty non-Christians who I have had the misfortune to come across, as they seem to have a double-dose of satanic influence which can almost make them seem to be possessed by an evil spirit. I speak with many experiences of such evil folks and have counselled many who have had similar experiences, which seem to be reproduceable from one church to another.

So, if you do ‘rumble’ the leadership by discovering what they are really all about, make haste to depart immediately and do not hang around imagining that you can somehow bring about healthy change. You will not. I can 100% assure you of that. Once they know that you have seen through them, those people will bury you in accusations, cruelty, backstabbing and evil dissention, whether you go or stay. But it is infinitely better for your health if you go.

4) If you are nowhere near an acceptable body of believers in a local ekklesia, maybe you can get together with other individual disciples of Christ in your area and start meeting together for meals and sharing fellowship, with a view to eventually starting a more solid group with elders and so forth. I know some folks are frightened of this, but if you allow it to develop according to the Lord’s wishes, you will find that all sorts of extraordinary things can begin to happen in synchronicity and serendipity. If you have read my commentary on the Book of Revelation, you will know that I am a firm believer in all righteous fellowships of God having an angel overseeing the proceedings and developments (cf. Revelation 2:1,8,12,18; 3:1,7,14). If such is the case, then you will be shown what to do and how to do it. That is a beautiful thing.

5) Watch out for those who will tell you that you MUST ‘go to church’ or you are disobeying a commandment of the Apostle Paul. There is no such compulsion to attend a church and to claim so is just a bunch of legalistic twaddle, not to mention playing fast and loose with the Scriptures. Here I have to yawn wearisomely, because at this point countless people will chime in with a grave voice about how “It says in Hebrews 10:25 that you MUST go to church, or else!” But they are guilty of the typical habit-of-the-heretic of taking a verse entirely out of its context and then misusing it to confirm a personal prejudice. That verse is not focusing on compulsion to attend a church. Throughout the Letter to the Hebrews, the writer is continually warning about apostasy in the face of knowledge received and blessings experienced. There were some who were “shrinking back” (Hebrews 10:39) because of persecution from the Jews and the Letter to the Hebrews 10:32-34 reveals that. Because of the cavalier and cultish manner in which verse 25 has been interpreted and wrenched out of its context I am going to go into it here in some detail.

Here is the verse: “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching”. How often I have seen that verse isolated from its context and hurled in people’s faces if they even fail to go to church for one single Sunday or two, or even just the evening service! Merely to apply those verses to trooping along to ‘church services’ on a Sunday represents a completely inadequate vision of a life of fellowship in Christ, as well as a total misunderstanding of that verse in its context. It tells us much about those who insist on such an interpretation (which I will open up below). The realm of the disciple is not supposed to be a cult; yet to see the way that people treat Sunday church services as the be-all-and-end-all of the spiritual life, you would think that it was the most pernicious cult of all, especially when, in most cases, there is very little in those services which would truly enhance one’s spiritual life and growth — often just consisting of a load of soppy, repetitive choruses in CCM style and a lukewarm ‘message’ to dull the minds of the hearers. (Even the very word, ‘message’, is a weak, castrated description of the kind of teaching, exhortation, proclamation which should be happening in an assembly of Christ’s disciples!).

Everything from verse 19 onward in the 10th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews is related to, and building up towards, the climax which is in verse 39: “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls”. For the 21-verse section of verses 19-39 — in keeping with the rest of the letter — is above all about the danger of apostasy and how to avoid it. That 39th verse is a mirror of what Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verse 13: “The one who perseveres to the end will be saved”, and what Jude said in his letter, verses 17-22. To pull one verse out of Hebrews, chapter 10, and make it into a Divine regulation for compulsory church attendance is one of the biggest examples of playing fast and loose with the sacred texts that I have ever come across. There are many who appear to put it almost on the same footing as the Ten Commandments, as they thunder at you: “THE LORD SAYS, ‘DO NOT FORSAKE THE ASSEMBLING OF YOURSELVES TOGETHER OR YOU WILL BE HELL-BOUND!’” If I had a dollar for the number of times this verse has been hurled at me to try and make me ‘go to church’ every Sunday, I would be a rich man! How has this come about? What could be the motivations for such a cavalier approach? Let us go into this more deeply…

When the formerly-Jewish Christians (to whom this letter was originally written) received those words “Let us not neglect meeting together”, it was not meant as a rigid command for them to “go to church, or else!” It was not even written as a rigid command but as a loving appeal. It was not ‘thundered’ at them as if being a voice out of the clouds on Mount Sinai. The context was plainly about being rescued from apostasy, as can be seen from the previous verse and from the few verses following (Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 23-24 & 26-31). But the folks who want to guilt-trip you into ‘going to church’ are very good at lifting single verses to suit their own agenda. That verse was not referring to those who had merely ‘failed to attend church’ but to those who were abandoning the faith altogether because they were afraid of the persecution which it brought on them from the Jews and the world as a result of associating with the company of the faithful. That is why it says in the final verse of the chapter, “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls”. In other words, this section is all about encouragement to attain maturity and avoid apostasy rather than condemnation. Thus, right after having said “Let us not neglect meeting together”, verse 25 also speaks clearly about “encouraging one another”. The meeting together is for mutual encouragement. That is the all-important element.

So this entire section in the book is not a Divine commandment to ‘go to church or else’ but an appeal to do all those things which encourage us and prevent us from fear and cowardice in the face of persecution for our faith in Christ. We tend to forget just how damning it is to be cowardly — a word which should really have no place in the life of the disciple of Christ. In the Book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 8, the “cowardly” are one of the classes of people (right alongside liars, the sexually immoral, murderers and sorcerers!) who will end up in the metaphorical “lake of fire and brimstone” and who will undergo “the second death”.

So cowardice can have no place in the life of the genuine disciple of Christ. It begins as fear, which makes one “shrink back”, and ends as apostasy and personal destruction. Nevertheless, fear or apprehension can understandably occur even in the minds of the faithful. Even Jesus, in His human nature, was apprehensive about His upcoming dreadful ordeal at the hands of the authorities and the massed oppression from all the forces of darkness, human and discarnate (see Matthew 26:37-42; Luke 22:41-44). Such apprehension is understandable and the Lord will provide ways of encouragement for those of His people who are so afflicted. But if one faithlessly over-indulges fear, it can turn into cowardice which, if not checked, begins a downward spiral towards the fringes of apostasy. This is why our text says, “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed”. If we are faithful disciples, we are definitely not “of those”. So, in verses 32-34, the readers of the letter are given an important reminder about their former joyful faithfulness and courage:

“Remember the early days that you were in the light. In those days, you endured a great conflict in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to ridicule and persecution; at other times you were partners with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession” (Hebrews 6:32-34).

It is clear that some of those formerly Jewish disciples of Christ were avoiding associating with their fellow disciples because they were afraid of the repercussions from the Jews in their neighbourhood through being linked with the name of Christ. So they are reminded about how at one time early in the days when they were first “in the light” or ‘enlightened’ — having been illuminated (the Greek word there is φωτισθέντες, phōtisthentes) with the truth about the Christ — they had experienced awful persecutions and even had their property impounded. Yet the faithful joyfully accepted all that, and imprisonment too, because they knew that what they possessed in Christ is infinitely more important and significant — “knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession”.

Thus, in Hebrews, chapter 10, the recipients of this letter were being lovingly reminded of the things which are important for encouragement in the life of the disciple of Christ, such as “the new and living way opened for us” (verse 20), the priesthood of Christ and His atoning sacrifice (verses 21-22), the hope we have in Him who is faithful in His promises (verse 23), the spurring “of one another on to love and good deeds” (verse 24), fruitful association with fellow disciples (verse 25), mutual encouragement through meeting up (verse 25), maintaining confidence in our faith (verse 35) and perseverance/endurance (verse 36). We are also given the example of Christ’s perseverance to encourage us (verses 2-3):

Thus, the contentious verse 25 is but one little part of a whole realm of commendations as to what can encourage the disciple of Christ and bring him or her into a deeper maturity and thus well-buttressed against any possible backsliding or apostasy.

In relation to this verse, I have often seen it said that “The Christian is commanded by God to attend public worship every Sabbath”. First, there was no such thing as “public worship” when the Letter to the Hebrews was written. Churches as we know them today did not happen until the third century AD as a more centralised religious control began to be wielded in the Christian scene. Prior to that, disciples met informally in each other’s homes. The fellowship was spontaneous and there was a ‘common purse’ so that less fortunate disciples could be helped financially. Second, in the original template of the life of the faithful, there was no such thing as Divinely-decreed attendance of a church. Aside from the fact that “churches” as actual buildings separate from home residences did not start happening until the third century, an authoritarian compulsion to meet in homes had no place. Forcible attendance of church by the government in the UK was tried in the seventeenth century and beyond. Today, there is no end to the number of people calling themselves “Christian” who look back to those as ‘the glory-days’. For pews were full and the whole community was ‘under church discipline’. Perfect result for control-freaks! But commanding disciples to meet together was not part of the original life of the Ekklesia. For Christ did not come to start a religion but a network of disciples who would meet together voluntarily and joyfully as a means of encouragement in the face of persecution and collective devotion.

So many seem to want to impose rules and regulations while developing authoritarian structures to force conformity to man-made norms. That is what lies behind this misapplication of Hebrews 10:25. Control.Religious apparatchiks do not like anyone to be out of their control. When one views God merely as some rigid tyrant in the heavens, that is going to determine the way one interprets the sacred texts and how one lives one’s life. But exhorting (not commanding) disciples ‘not to neglect meeting together’ is a way of emphasising that backsliding and apostasy are far less likely to take hold of an individual when that individual is in fellowship with others rather than hiding away from such fellowship because of the fear of persecution. That is the real context here. Such fellowship is not confined to the attendance of a church. In fact, I have often had more fruitful and genuinely loving fellowship when meeting up with disciples in their homes over a meal (or even [perish the thought!] on the internet!) than in a formal church setting, where one sits in the same room as other folks for an hour or more, then has a polite cup of weak tea and then… poof!… gone. What kind of fellowship is that?

Usually, there are profound reasons why disciples would not want to be with fellow disciples and they therefore need counsel rather than commandments. The role of elders in any ecclesiastical setting is not to guilt-trip people into ‘attending church’, for enforced attendance is not from the heart. There is nothing instantly magical about a local ‘church’. Being forced to attend is not conducive to healthy development. The Ekklesia as a whole is supposed to be ‘the suburbs of heaven’ for disciples of Christ. That is certainly true about the true Church, the body of Christ. But it is sadly not true about all local representations of the Ekklesia. The truth is that a genuine disciple of Christ has no need to be coerced into ‘going to church’, for a genuine disciple loves to be in the company of other genuine disciples. Such fellowship is precious and he or she will find it one way or another. But merely “going to church” is no guarantee that one will be with an encouraging group of people, unless one is easily boosted by superficiality and false bonhomie.

These days, the usual way to find it is by going along to an actual church building on a Sunday. But that is not the only way. Going to a church is the easiest way. But what if someone has had a bad experience in one or more local churches (which is very likely given the state of many of today’s churches)? What if they have been spiritually abused (or their offspring sexually abused in the case of denominational churches)? What if someone has seen through the false teaching and practices of his or her local church (which is very likely given the state of many of today’s churches)?  What if there is no loving, faithful local church within travelling distance? Are you going to browbeat such people into church attendance by thundering Hebrews 10:25 at them?

The interesting thing is that even after reading this article, the vast majority of those who twist Hebrews 10:25 to be a command to “Go to church” will still carry on believing that falsehood regardless. They believe it because they want to believe it. They believe it because they are control-freaks who love compulsion. But the “Go to church, or else!” interpretation of Hebrews 10:25 is simply bad Bible hermeneutics (interpretation). The basic rules for good Bible interpretation are as follows:

1) Always pray for enlightenment about the text.
2) Always ensure that the Hebrew or Greek text under consideration has been properly and faithfully translated.
3) Always interpret the text in, and according to, its surrounding verbal context (exegesis) rather than plucking it out of its context in order to make it fit into some personal preconceived ideas (eisegesis).
4) Always take into account the historical or social background of the text.
5) Always interpret the text in such a way that it does not contradict any truths in other Bible texts.

If you always apply the above rules to your interpretation of Bible texts, then you will not err in that interpretation (and you will also thankfully avoid starting a sect or a cult!).

Many have failed to grasp that there is a pastoral context to Hebrews 10:25. The natural desire of the faithful disciple of Christ is to be in the company of other disciples. There is some truth to the old image of how an ember (glowing piece of wood or coal) in a fireplace burns more brightly when in the company of other embers. But we are now living in the days when probably what could be 75% of local assemblies of professing Christians do not provide the necessary ‘embership’ required by genuine disciples of Christ. A local assembly of professing Christians may have a large membership but it may not have the necessary ‘embership’ for genuine disciples to desire to be part of it! It is not church membership which real disciples need… it is church ‘embership’. If you can find a local gathering of disciples whose embers burn with passion for objective truth over subjective experience, with a large dose of courage and love, then you have won a great prize which is increasingly less available today.

The startlingly interesting thing is that the embers of people who have been spiritually abused in churches only begin to ‘glow’ again after they had stopped going to church! They only began to regain their equilibrium when they tore themselves away from the ‘heavy shepherding’ churches which had maligned them and damaged their spiritual integrity, or from the churches which had filled their heads with wacky teachings and demonic practices. They only began to realise how much God really cares for them when they removed themselves (or in some cases were forcibly removed!) from the churches which had tried so hard to crush every last ounce of their God-given incisive minds and individuality.

“Meeting together” these days has come to take on different meanings apart from keeping pews warm in a church building. Some people find their fellowship (“meeting together”) on the internet. Others just meet in homes with others in their area who have also had enough of the ‘heavy shepherding’ or false teaching in formally organised churches. There is a vast number who live like this. I am in touch with many of them. Thus, they are not “neglecting meeting together” (verse 25) and are thus fulfilling the appeal of that verse. They have not shied away from meeting with other disciples but only from ‘going to church’. Thus, they are still ‘meeting together’. They do not back off from ‘going to church’ because they are afraid or because they are apostatising but because they do not want to be in co-dependent submission to an authoritarian or wayward assembly of professing ‘Christians’ where the teaching is ‘up the Swanee’. They are first and foremost disciples of Christ and do not subscribe to mere ‘churchianity’. In an article written more than twenty years ago, I referred to such folks as “The New Diaspora” — scattered sheep who have been wounded or appalled by local churches they have attended and expect something better. Essentially, the visible church, in large measure, has become part of the great apostasy and is therefore something from which one should ‘shrink back’ rather than be forced to be involved with by trigger-happy pastors with a control-freak mentality!

An accusation which is likely to be made in the wake of reading these words is that I am “encouraging isolationism and individualism”. The problem is that what people often disparagingly call ‘isolationism’ is for many ‘recuperationism’ for those who ‘went to a church’ and were traumatised by spiritual abuse. It takes a very wise man to be an elder in a church. Such wisdom is extremely thin on the ground; which is why so many churches are out of kilter and why so many do not want to ‘go to a church’ which is dominated by someone less wise or less compassionate than they are. If your son or daughter had just come out of a really bad and abusive marriage, would you try and force them immediately into another one and with anyone? And if they had been abused in one marriage after another, and felt that they didn’t want to be married again, would you start thundering at them about the evils of spinsterhood or being ‘single’? Of course not. So why do people — in such a threatening manner — force those who have been abused in a church to start immediately attending another church? That is just so cultish, not to mention insensitive. Hurt people who do not ‘go to church’ are not ‘isolationists’, as they are often falsely accused, but ‘recuperationists’. They need time to convalesce. It may take weeks or months, or it may even take years — in some extreme instances, it might take decades. Only a completely insensitive character would fail to recognise this. Recently, someone told me that they had tried to go to a church after having been traumatised in one twenty-two years earlier and only now had they summoned up the courage to do so and they were shaking as they entered the building. There is a pastoral dimension here which seems to completely evade the understanding of far too many professing ‘Christians’ who have no regard to the reality of PTSD (what I call Post-Traumatic Spiritual Disorder) in these circumstances.

A common accusation in many churches of anyone who thinks imaginatively, or who dresses differently, or who is somewhat ‘bohemian’, or who presents themselves differently, or does not ‘go to church’, is that they are showing signs of individualism. They say that the scourge of the church is ‘individualism’ (I have heard this said many times), and that I am aiding and abetting this scourge by propping up the ‘individualists’ with what I write. It seems that many confuse individualism with individuality. Folks need to understand the important difference between ‘individualism’ and ‘individuality’. Individualism means that someone puts his or her own ego above all other considerations, whereas individuality means that s/he simply exercises his or her God-given abilities, talents, idiosyncrasies and discernment. Our individuality comes from our Creator. If that then becomes “individual-ism”, then we are making an idol out of ourselves. However, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with being an individual. We were created as individuals and given an individuality for a reason: because we have individual goals to achieve and individual functions to achieve them. Unfortunately, most people use their individuality to exalt themselves and their milieu. A disciple of Christ uses his or her individuality for the glory of God. Any organisation which seeks to quash that individuality and encourage blind conformity has already become a cult. Sadly, many churches, under the guise of preventing ‘individualism’, wind up crushing the uniqueness and individuality of so many of those in their fellowships that they then become mini-cults. We must never confuse egocentric individualism with healthy, natural, God-given individuality.

Finding a church today is a bit like Russian Roulette. You never know what you are going to find when you walk through the doors. That ‘pig-in-a-poke’ scenario has meant that many prefer the isolated peace of potentially not being in a nuthouse to the heartbreak of finding that you are in one and all the abusive baloney that goes with it. 

If you are the kind of person who has little perception, very little sense of justice, who wanders around with eyes closed and mind too, then you will not have a problem in any church. If you are just looking for some kind of social fellowship and you do not care about truth, then you will not have a problem in any church. You have to realize that if and when you find a body of believers to fellowship with, it will have an effect on your life in major ways. If you are joining a group just to serve your own interests then your motivation is all wrong. Obviously, you will receive benefits if you are in a group of genuine disciples of Christ, But the main thought in the front of your mind should be what can I bring to this group… what can I give to this group… what can I do for this group… how can I serve in this group.

I know that there are many who subscribe to my writings who are living on the fringes of ‘church life’. They subscribe because they know that I am not going to get on their case about “going to church”. They subscribe because they know they will get honest teaching here and no fluff. They subscribe because they will not be abused or treated like an outsider. They know that I am sympathetic to what others would call ‘misfits’ and ‘birds with broken wings’. The true Ekklesia has always been full of such folks, rather than smugly successful people who always feel at ease in large groups or crowds.

I always say that it is preferable to be meeting up with other disciples as an aid to encouragement (and to encourage those others too). But that should always be voluntary rather than through compulsion. We are living in extraordinary circumstances today and finding a suitable fellowship is not as black and white as many would paint it. If ever there was the need for empathy, it is now.

So, in the spirit of Hebrews 10:25, I conclude by saying this: Do not neglect meeting up with other genuine disciples of Christ, if that is possible to fulfil. If you can find the right people, it will be such an encouragement for you. If you can find the right people who are being led by genuinely wise and compassionate elders, then you will have struck gold. If you can find the right people who are being led by genuinely wise and compassionate elders who will accept you in spite of your eccentricities and who will not snobly or scathingly judge you, then you will have struck gold. Sometimes I have been able to put people in touch with such a group, or others in their area. So feel free to contact me, telling me where you are based and I will see what I can find.

Love & Blessings from me, 💖

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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