10/04/2026
Some people won't like this one, but it needs to be said anyway: the tree stand isn't your church.
We all know there's something about climbing into the stand before daylight. The woods go quiet, the sky starts to gray in the east, and the world feels a little closer to the way God made it. A lot of us have said it, and meant it: "I feel closer to God out here than anywhere else."
That's not wrong. Scripture tells us "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork" (Psalm 19:1). Even Jesus "rising up a great while before day, went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed" (Mark 1:35). Some of the best prayer time you'll ever have might be 20 feet up an oak with nobody around but a squirrel.
But here's the hard truth: the tree stand is not your church.
It may be a great place for prayer, meditation, even bible study. But it will never take the place of church.
God never designed us to follow Him alone. He gave us the church: a body of imperfect people who worship together, carry each other's burdens, and call each other higher. Hebrews 10:25 says plainly, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another." Nobody in the woods is going to hold you accountable. Nobody's going to pray over you when your marriage is struggling or bring a meal when your family's hurting. The deer don't care if you're doing okay or not.
And if we're honest, there's a second danger that comes along with thinking the woods can be your church. Hunting can quietly become an idol. It rarely happens all at once. It's one more Sunday in the stand because "the rut's on." It's the money, the scouting, the trail cam checks, the thoughts that drift to next season during the sermon. An idol isn't just a golden statue. It's anything we love, serve, or trust more than God. Romans 1:25 warns about people who "worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." That can happen with a whitetail just as easily as anything else.
God called us plainly in scripture to come to his house to meet with Him and His people. Don't let a deer calling you to the woods be the one you choose over that.
So here's the challenge this season: enjoy the woods. Pray in the stand. Thank God for every sunrise and every animal He provides. But don't let creation replace the Creator, and don't let the woods replace His people. Get in church. Even if it's been a long time. Plug in. Serve.
You may enjoy being in the woods more than you enjoy being at church, but God never told us to do what we enjoy most, He called us to serve Him as part of the family of Christ.
The best season you'll ever have is the one where God stays first.
"Little children, keep yourselves from idols." 1 John 5:21
