Sixty-five years later, I suspect that many church-based thinkers would today answer that Christianity is really a long story that begins with Christ himself. The church is the steward of the story. It is the place where it is told, cherished, and preserved. Tillich would probably answer that, yes, the church is the repository of Christianity's stories, but there are no stories without language. He would be right.
Thus, we can only speak of Christian faith by drawing on the language spoken by the churches. Without them there is no living faith. As important an insight as this may be, it only reflect a larger truth, which is that no human institution can live without language. Language lies at the core of what it means to be human. It binds culture together in a way that nothing else does. So, Tillich is right, but he also isn't saying anything that doesn't apply to human society more generally. We can't live without language. Still, the fundamental point here is that churches do not exist for the purpose of coercing faith or preserving certain kinds of dogma. They are stewards of language, story, traditions, and much more all of which are elements of personal faith.
Individuals, of course, can and increasingly often these days do go it alone without belonging to churches. They can only do that, however, because there are churches. Once the native language speakers of Christianity die, so dies the language and the faith that depends on it. So, yes, we have to have churches even if we personally go it alone.
