Some of us were taught that God is closest inside a church. So when we cannot get there, or do not want to go back, we wonder if our prayers still count.
Jesus was asked almost this exact question, and the person asking was not someone anyone expected him to talk to.
The woman at the well
Jesus was walking through Samaria, a region whose people did not get along with his own. He was tired. It was the hottest part of the day, and he sat down by a well.
A woman from the nearby town came to get water. Jesus asked her for a drink. She was surprised. People from Judea and people from Samaria did not usually share anything, the Gospel of John explains, and a man did not usually talk with a woman he did not know.
They talked for a long time. And then she asked him about the biggest argument between their two peoples. Samaritans worshipped God on a mountain near her town. In Judea, the region around Jerusalem, the temple in Jerusalem was the place. Which one was right?
His answer
Jesus told her neither one.
Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
John 4:21 · King James VersionThe original Greek
λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Πίστευέ μοι, γύναι, ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα ὅτε οὔτε ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ οὔτε ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις προσκυνήσετε τῷ πατρί.
Found in Papyrus 66 (about AD 200), Papyrus 75 (about AD 200), Codex Vaticanus (about AD 325), Codex Sinaiticus (about AD 350).
Then he told her why. He said God is spirit, and the people God wants are the ones who worship him in spirit and in truth. Not on the right hill. Not in the right building. Honestly, wherever they are.
What that means for you
We Christians have argued over holy places for a long time too. We have fought over buildings and land and who gets to stand where. It is a very human thing to want God to live at an address.
But Jesus, sitting by a well with a stranger, took the address away. That is good news if you are praying in a parked car before work, or at 3 in the morning in a hospital, or in a small apartment far from any church.
God is already there. You do not have to go anywhere to reach him.