Whatever our experience, there is no Christianity apart from the Church. This is true because there is no such thing as solitary Christianity.
Although our Christian faith and experience must be personal, it cannot be private. The more private we seek to make it, the more distorted it becomes. Jesus’ life and ministry were never matters of private religious feelings that he kept to himself: He lived his life for others. A personal experience of Christ kept private soon dies.
Jesus promised his presence in community: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them”
(Matthew 18:20). The birth of the Church was the first act of the Holy Spirit after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus had shattered the dreams of his followers. They were confused and frustrated, not knowing what was going on and what the future held. They were filled with fear; and within only a few days after Jesus’ death, some of his original twelve disciples returned to their former way of life.
Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection, and he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” Acts1:4-5).
The Holy Spirit came upon that little group gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem. The Spirit came because they obeyed Jesus, stayed together, and waited for the promise.
The Christian faith and experience continues in that style through history: people staying together, obedient, mutually accountable, responsive to the Spirit and Christ.