The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that living in community with others significantly benefits one’s health. As reported by the New York Times News Service, “Building on a dozen studies correlating friendship and fellowship with health, a new study has found that people with a broad array of social ties are significantly less likely to catch colds than those with sparse social networks. The incidence of infection among people who knew many different kinds of people was nearly half that among those who were relatively isolated, the researchers reported. The lack of diverse social contacts was the strongest of the risk factors for colds that were examined, including smoking, low vitamin C intake, and stress.”
Researchers have found similar health benefits from community for heart disease patients. In one study conducted by a faculty member at Duke University Medical Center, it was found that heart disease patients with few social ties are six times as likely to die within six months as those with many relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and her husband, Dr. Ronald Glaser, both faculty members at Ohio State University, have also reported that a significant social support increases a person’s immune response to vaccines.
Just as participating in community helps keep a person physically healthy, a disciple’s commitment to gather with other followers of Christ on a regular basis helps keep him or her spiritually healthy. Hebrews 10.24-25 reminds us to “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – all the more as you see the Day approaching” (NIV).
While it’s true that merely sitting in a worship center on Sunday morning doesn’t make a person a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes a person a car, gathering with other Christians for weekly worship and for weekly prayer/study/fellowship in a small group helps keep a disciple of Jesus spiritually healthy and growing in his or her faith. Gathering with other Christians is not a task we have to do; it’s a privilege we get to do, and exercising that privilege is as important to spiritual health as exercising our bodies is important to physical health.
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