Most Important Thing

Search the Bible all you want, you won't find anywhere it says that you get to go to heaven if you join a church.   

God's Word does say we are supposed to be faithful about gathering with other Christians (Hebrews 10:25), but that verse is talking to people who already have eternal life. You don't get eternal life by going to church; you go to church because you have eternal life.   

Think about it. Haven't you known people who were church members who didn't act like they were full of eternal life? Just because you've got a membership certificate from the Eternal Optimists Club doesn't mean you're going to heaven.   

If joining a church was all it took, that would mean Hitler could get into heaven. He would show up at the Pearly Gates and tell St. Peter: "It doesn't matter that I was evil incarnate. I was a church member. Here, look at my baptismal certificate!"   

God has spelled out in black and white what He requires for a person to have eternal life: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10.9).   

Joining a church is something you do. What you do matters, but it isn't what saves you.    

What saves you is trusting a God who loves you enough to give you the gift you could never earn: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).   

You don't go to church without the gift of eternal life any more than a kid goes to a birthday party without a present for the guest of honor. Church without eternal life is boring.    

But getting together with other people who have God's life burning inside -- now that's exciting!