I spent a fair number of hours last week watching and listening to an Internet broadcast of the international barbershop quartet championships from Salt Lake City. During the four days of competition, I heard a lot of excellent singing and saw some amazing performances. When I grow up, I hope to be as good a singer as some of those who graced the stage.

If you’ve ever heard barbershop harmony done well, you understand something of the precision that’s required. All four voices have to contribute just the right pitch, volume, timbre, and word sound in exactly the right balance in order to produce barbershop’s characteristic “ringing” quality. It looks easy — and indeed, anyone who can carry a tune can learn to do it to some degree — but it really is quite challenging to create the music well. Experienced singers in other genres of music will often tell you that singing barbershop is more demanding in its own way than even opera singing is.

One thing about barbershop is immutable: You can’t do it by yourself. Oh, sure, you can sing a barbershop melody solo — most of the songs in the barbershop lexicon are familiar tunes most Americans (at least, those over a certain age) have heard before — but try as you might, you can’t make that distinctive sound without at least three other people to sing the other parts that make up the harmony.

Many things in life are like singing barbershop — you can’t do them alone. A good part of that is due to the fact that God made us human beings to be social creatures who depend upon the interaction of others of our kind. In fact, one of the first recorded observations of God regarding humankind is, “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18).

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon comments on the value of companionship: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

Sometimes people wonder why they should be active in a local church. After all, aren’t we each individually responsible to God (2 Corinthians 5:10)? Will we not stand or fall before him based upon our own actions (Romans 14:4; 1 Corinthians 3:8-15)?

All of these are true, but it is also true that God in His wisdom created the church because He knew it was not good for us to attempt to serve Him alone. Even Jesus surrounded Himself with twelve other men whose company He treasured, and whom He called friends. Paul, as he went about preaching the gospel, was almost always accompanied by others — at various times his companions included Barnabas, Timothy, Luke, Silas, John Mark, and many more whose names appear in Paul’s letters. Paul knew that these brethren were valuable not only to his work, but also to him personally (2 Timothy 1:3-4; 4:11; Philippians 2:19-30).

One of the qualities that characterized early Christians was their desire to be together: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:46-47). When the apostles suffered persecution, they immediately sought out their fellows in faith (Acts 4:23; 12:12).