Is a gathering in a care facility a church gathering?
Question:
I am autistic and live in a facility. I can't drive from here to any church. My sister could bring me, but she is not very consistent. I can't rely on her early Sunday mornings. However, the facility I am at has an hour-long gathering of believers on Monday evenings. They sing a hymn, study the Bible, and pray at the end. Is the Monday gathering at my facility considered a church gathering? It's taught and led by a woman, so I don't know if that would make it void. Will Christians end up in hell if they don't go to church? Is the gathering in the facility where I live not any good since it's on Mondays and not Sundays? However, Colossians 2 says Christians shouldn't be judged about a holy day, and Romans 14 says some esteem every day alike and some don't and to be fully persuaded in our minds.
Answer:
There is more to a church than meeting once in a while. It is an organization established by God ("The Organization of the Church") to accomplish the tasks God set out for it ("The Purpose of the Church"). The meeting in your facility is merely a Bible study group.
Have you considered contacting the church near you and see if someone there could give you a ride to services?
Sunday is the day designated for worship. See "Is Sunday the only day of worship, or can we worship God any day?" Colossians 2:13-17 discusses that Old Law ended with Christ's death on the cross. Therefore, the Jewish teachers who were insisting that Christians worship on the Sabbath Day were wrong, and Christians should not accept the Jewish teachers' judgment. Romans 14 talks about whether it is wrong for Christians who came from a Jewish heritage to privately keep some of the special feast days or dietary laws. Paul answers that it is not wrong individually, but it is wrong to bind your practices on others. He is not saying that keeping those traditions overrides God's commands in any way. You can't replace God's selected day of worship with a different day.
