Will God Reject Me If I Don't Go To Church?

-

You have a friend named Lauren who has not come to church for several months. You and some other members of your Sunday School class decide to visit her at her home to encourage her to attend church this coming Sunday. When you tell her that you’ve missed her at church, she replies, “I’ve been going on hikes on Sundays instead of coming to church. I feel closer to God in nature.” When you try to tell her about how it will bless her and others if she attends church, she says, “I don’t need the Church in order to be a good person. And I don’t think God is going to reject people from being with Him just because they don’t go to church and do all the things the Church tells them to do.”
(“Ordinances and Covenants, Part 2,” Doctrinal Mastery Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Teacher Material (2017))

-
The lesson refers to this quote from  D. Todd Christofferson

“If one believes that all roads lead to heaven or that there are no particular requirements for salvation, he or she will see no need for proclaiming the gospel or for ordinances and covenants in redeeming either the living or the dead. But we speak not just of immortality but also of eternal life, and for that the gospel path and gospel covenants are essential. And the Savior needs a church to make them available to all of God’s children—both the living and the dead” (D. Todd Christofferson, “Why the Church,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2015, 110).

I recommend the whole talk.

If we are to receive all that the Father has, we must be willing to follow what he asks of us. We bind ourselves to act in according to His will when we accept the covenants of the Lord through the authorized servants of the Lord.

If we are to improve each week, we need to recommit to the Lord in a way that brings power into our lives. I like this example from "Missionary Preparation Teacher Manual, Chapter 8", lds.org

Show a blank check, and tell students that you would like to financially reward one of them for attending class. Hand the check to a student and ask him or her to write a check for a student sitting nearby. Remind the student to sign his or her name to the check before giving it to the recipient. After the check is written, show it to the class and ask if the student who received it will have any problems
lawfully cashing it.
• Legally, how important is the proper signature on a check?
• Why must one have proper authority to perform a legal transaction, such
as writing a check?
• How might this relate to the need for proper priesthood authority?
• Why is authority necessary in dealing with the things of God?

The check in this example is like the key to the power God want to give us. The power to effect the most good in the world. M. Russell Ballard tells us how to obtain and keep that power:

Sometimes we are tempted to let our lives be governed more by convenience than by covenant. It is not always convenient to live gospel standards and stand up for truth and testify of the Restoration. It usually is not convenient to share the gospel with others. It isn’t always convenient to respond to a calling in the Church, especially one that stretches our abilities. Opportunities to serve others in meaningful ways, as we have covenanted to do, rarely come at convenient times. But there is no spiritual power in living by convenience. The power comes as we keep our covenants.
(Emphasis added, "Like a Flame Unquenchable", M. Russell Ballard, General Conference, Apr 1999, Video Clip of this quote)

-

Abraham wanted more righteousness, more happiness. Being in a covenant relationship is required to receive all the blessing the father desires to give us.

finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.
(Abraham 1:2)

-

See also https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/authority-in-the-church

-

The Error of the Ancients

President Kimball said,

I bear witness to the world today that more than a century and a half ago the iron ceiling was shattered; the heavens were once again opened, and since that time revelations have been continuous. … 

Since that momentous day in 1820, additional scripture has continued to come, including the numerous and vital revelations flowing in a never-ending stream from God to his prophets on the earth. … 

… We testify to the world that revelation continues and that the vaults and files of the Church contain these revelations which come month to month and day to day. We testify also that there is, since 1830 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, and will continue to be, so long as time shall last, a prophet, recognized of God and his people, who will continue to interpret the mind and will of the Lord. 

Now, a word of warning: Let us not make the error of the ancients. Numerous modern sectarians believe in the Abrahams, the Moseses, and the Pauls, but resist believing in today’s prophets. The ancients also could accept the prophets of an earlier day, but denounced and cursed the ones who were their contemporaries. 

In our day, as in times past, many people expect that if there be revelation it will come with awe-inspiring, earth-shaking display. For many it is hard to accept as revelation those numerous ones in Moses’ time, in Joseph’s time, and in our own year—those revelations which come to prophets as deep, unassailable impressions settling down on the prophet’s mind and heart as dew from heaven or as the dawn dissipates the darkness of night. 

Expecting the spectacular, one may not be fully alerted to the constant flow of revealed communication. I say, in the deepest of humility, but also by the power and force of a burning testimony in my soul, that from the prophet of the Restoration to the prophet of our own year, the communication line is unbroken, the authority is continuous, a light, brilliant and penetrating, continues to shine. The sound of the voice of the Lord is a continuous melody and a thunderous appeal. For nearly a century and a half there has been no interruption. ("Revelation: The Word of the Lord to His Prophets", Spencer W. Kimball, Apr 1977)

It seems that the error of the ancients was to believe the previous prophets over the living ones we have today. We must be cautious and prudent. We know that our living prophets are men. But they are 15 men that have been prepared for decades in a path they have not chosen. They were called of God. When the united voice of the brethren speak, it is up to us to seek the Lords confirmation of such statements. I can hardly consider the likelihood that I am correct and they have erred.