Going to a building that people call "a church" is not an indicator of salvation.
People go to buildings they call churches for many reasons. Sometimes it is because they like the music, or they like the preaching that makes them feel good and safe, other times they attend to feel a sense of belonging to a group of people.
Mark 7:13 "13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”
The traditions of men are rampant in the modern church and are condemned by God. God is not pleased with man attempting to serve Him their own way. God wants obedience to His Word emulating His model for church governance and conduct. Some people who attend Bible colleges or seminaries enjoy the sense that they are above others and more knowledgable, therefore they love the accolades they receive for having attended these "special" schools.
I know of people who are always involved in seminars regularly ready to come back to their churches declaring the knowledge they gained. Some people use the phrase, "it changed my life" even though there is no change observed in them after their encounters with "special" teachers and preachers.
Often those who attend seminars place their trust in the teachers in those places instead of the Holy Spirit. They seem to think that the teacher up front knows more than the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit cannot speak to them without that teacher.
I am not against gatherings with a teacher who uses only the bible to prove what he is teaching, but sadly these teachers are rare.
John 16:13-14 " 13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"
Often those who depend on special teachers almost never speak of the Holy Spirit but have much praise for those teachers as though they are separate from the Holy Spirit.
I actually had a woman say to me years ago, "you can't know because you didn't go to seminary." My response was; "Oh, you mean you think the Holy Spirit only goes to seminary?" Apparently she didn't realize the Holy Spirit lives and works in all born-again believers.
God never commanded Bible schools or seminaries to be built. He never commanded men to ordain people for the ministry. God called men to ministry Himself as He set up the means by which they were drawn in, not of their own efforts.
God said to all believers; "the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth" and ;
Hebrews 5:11-13 "11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are dull of hearing. 12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food! 13 For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness."
God made it clear that believers' gatherings must be led by the men in the group, all of them. Each man should participate in the Lord's supper as they speak from the Word, call for a song, and pray all led by the Holy Spirit. No one is paid and no one takes center stage as though having authority over another. The Holy Spirit is the leader in each man who is led by Him.
Leaders must lead by teaching and example not by intimidation. And, every leader is accountable to the rest of the congregation. All believers speak with authority from the Holy Spirit. Everyone speaks and everyone listens as well as self-reflecting to make sure what they have said and done is directly from the Word of God. If one man speaks and it is incorrect the other men are led by the Holy Spirit to correct him and the one corrected is to receive it.
If anyone attempts to shut down another believer because they think they are superior, that person who thinks they are special is not qualified to lead and is not obeying the Holy Spirit but rather their own lust for power over others.
I Corinthians 14:29-32
"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets."
When someone who is speaking is interrupted and refuses to allow the one interrupting to speak, that first one speaking is disobeying God when they will not stop and allow the second one to speak.
How many times have we seen a person from the audience interrupt the preacher for a concern? We do not see it because the devil has silenced the congregation over a rule to address it later after the speaker is alone. God never made this rule it was made by men who were taught in seminary to "protect their pulpit" as though they were the all-knowing ones.
The problem with this is that by the time the speaker is finished and you do it privately none of the other congregants heard the correction. We are to correct wrong doctrine in front of all so that all may judge. In modern churches this openness and correction is forbidden, leaving many pew people thinking they have heard the truth, going home and believing things that were untrue or only partially true. No one man should be speaking at the teaching, one man leads but does not have authority over all that is said.
God says this about rebukes too, when someone has sinned openly then they are to be rebuked openly.
1 Timothy 5:20 "As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
Correction in front of others causes others in the group to make sure they are doing and saying what is truth so as not to have to be called out.
Satan has deceived the pew people into thinking they are not allowed to speak because the man in the pulpit has the authority over the pew people, he does not have authority. He teaches and others have a command from Christ to correct or add to whatever is being taught.
Because of this false teaching for everyone to remain silent in the churches while the pulpit person speaks we have most men lazy in the scriptures and unable to discern truth from error. They would rather have someone else do all their thinking for them than engage in the hard work and prayer to find out the truth and be able to answer anyone at any time.
All the men in a congregation should be well-read in the Scriptures during the week before they come to the gathering so that they will be equipped with God's Word to speak.
I know this is a hard pill to swallow but God never commanded man to build bible colleges or seminaries, churches or any other buildings for the people of God to meet. The model of the first-century church was that men would be taught and led by the Holy Spirit and by others in the congregation who are also taught and led by the Holy Spirit. Man seems to think they can enhance God's ways using their own methods.
Attending schools tends to make the teachers the authority rather than the Holy Spirit. After all, one might get a bad grade or a bad recommendation if they don't say in their papers what the teacher is teaching.
Because man wants always to be in control of how things are done they have perverted the principles of the Bible by reading between the lines and developing their own traditions that ultimately end up negating God's Word. The pride of man is in the church too, sadly growing darker every day as the Laodicean church model runs rampant through most church gatherings today.
This idea that we must go to a building is not from the Bible and has led to many traditions of men that ruin the witness of believers as well as leading the pew people into grave error.
We see what happens when people are accustomed to attending a building where one man is the focal point, when the churches were shut down by the government the pew people didn't know what to do, they had no idea that they could worship at home with a few people, namely their family. This mentality of having to attend a formal church building led people to not return to the building when the government allowed them to come back.
We don't need those buildings or those one-man pastors or training by men in schools. All we need is the Holy Spirit and a home in which to meet. The men can obey the Scriptures without government interference, without huge heating bills and without any of the trappings that come with maintaining property that people meet in once or twice a week.
There is also much better accountability in terms of unbelievers who might show up. We are more likely to give them the gospel one-on-one than hoping the pulpit person will do it from a stage 40 feet away.
Every believer ought to be able to share the gospel with anyone they meet, but since the one-man pastor system has trained the pew people that its the job of the pastor, they remain comfortable without ever speaking the gospel to anyone.
Proverbs 29:25 "25 The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is set securely on high."
Simple: seek the Word of God for His principles and His commands and you will not need a "hierarchy" system or a special building.
