How important is the local church in your life? For many people today church is not an integral part of their week, it’s something they could take or leave. Some feel that walking with God is not contingent in any way on their relationship to a local community of believers. Others feel that the Christian life was intended to be lived solo. But are these concepts right? What does God have to say about the importance of the local church in the life of a believer? In turns out, a whole lot! One passage that addresses this is I Corinthians 12 where Paul teaches us about spiritual gifts. Based on the Apostle’s teaching it is clear that the members in each local church are meant to be interdependent. Dependence says “I need you.” Independence says, “I don’t need you.” Interdependence says, “I need you and you need me.” Only the spiritually mature believer recognizes both their need for the local church and also that they are needed by the local church. God says each local congregation is a body (cf. I Cor. 12:27), and that each person is a member of the body. In other words you may be a hand or a foot or an eye or an ear, and no matter where you fit you are indispensable to the body (cf. I Cor. 12:21-22)! But why did God use the metaphor of a physical body to picture a local congregation of believers? The reasons are many, but one is very important to recognize: believers are supposed to live the Christian life in community. We need each other! God does not intend us to live the Christian life alone. R.C. Sproul put it strongly when he said, “To stay away from church is to spit in God’s face and despise His gift of the kingdom.” May we heed Paul’s instructions in I Corinthians 12 and recognize the incredible gift God has given in the local church!