Why church?

Michael Himes has an eloquent piece in a recent C21 issue, in which we talks about “why church?” I love this quote:

Ultimately, the reason we need the Church is because we cannot believe apart from community. To speak of spirituality without roots in a community is to flirt with idolatry. Trying to enter into relationship with God in some private, individualistic fashion is a guarantee that one will be talking to oneself. Apart from the day-to-day, sometimes achingly hard, occasionally grindingly dull, always deeply humbling attempt to love those around us in practical ways one simply cannot claim that one is in relationship with God.

[my emphasis]