Tony Evans, a prominent Southern Baptist pastor recently stated that gathering together for church detracts from personal worship.
Evans, a Pelagian heretic who denies original sin, is highly sought after in Southern Baptist and Evangelical circles as a social justice speaker and provocateur. Both he, and his daughter, Priscilla Shirer, are often quoted in the Southern Baptist LifeWay’s Gospel Project Sunday School curriculum.
“I think collective gathering has sometimes taken away from personal worship,” Evans says. “To come now to God in a daily surrender—one, because you can’t go to church and No. 2, because we’re in a crisis—you put those two together, then you take the Word of God. And since the Bible says the Holy Spirit is in us, we are the temple, in a temple of the place of worship, there is a learning opportunity to enter into personal church each day. …
“Now’s the time for you to be your own choir director and not be ashamed about your voice. Sing to Him, praise Him, pray to Him, look at His Word and then use this time to deal with things in your life with Him. … Let’s look for the teaching in the trial.”
Of course, this is patently false and the gathering of the saints of the Church is explicitly FOR enhancing personal worship and edification. It does absolutely NOTHING to detract from personal worship. Corporate worship is not optional, it is commanded in the Scriptures and God does not take lightly the neglecting of the assembly.
“Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” — Hebrews 10:25
