What Is a Church?

by Stephen Bastin

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Dumb question.  Everyone knows that a church is that place down on the corner with a steeple on top.  People who ask questions like that must be from Mars!

Really there are no dumb questions.  There may be dumb answers, but not dumb questions.

We believe that the right answers (which are not dumb answers) to Bible questions are the ones found in the Bible.  Popular opinion may differ, but the Bible is the place to go to find the answers to questions about the church, about heaven, about hell and many other subjects.

In fact, we encourage people to ask any question.  Questions are not embarrassing.  We recognize them as sincere efforts to learn.  We may not always have an answer.  We may not always be right.  But we defend the right of every person to ask questions.

There are two common views of the church.  One is the idea of a building where people meet on Sunday to worship God.  The other is an organization that provides the building and determines the beliefs and practices of the people who meet in that building.  The organization may be a national organization or it may be an organization composed of people from that local group.  Neither of these ideas is found in the Bible.

In the Bible the church is the people who meet.  The building is just a building.  It is neither holy nor profane.  In fact, churches in the Bible owned no buildings.  It is unclear where most of them met.  Some met in homes.  The first church in Jerusalem met often in the temple area.

Again, in the Bible, the church is not an organization.  Everything that it believed and practiced came from the apostles and was written in the New Testament.  No organization was needed to determine beliefs and practices because these matters had already been settled by Jesus.  This is not to say that the church must be disorganized.  It is to say that the organization has no authority to determine doctrine.  That was determined by Jesus and communicated to His apostles.

The nature of the church, as designed by God, is that of a family.  In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, the church is referred to as the “household of God.”  The church is like a family.  Paul wrote the church at Corinth, “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”  The church is people with whom you may share your deepest experiences.  Times of grief and times of joy may be shared with those who accept you.

The church is a family because all are brothers and sisters in Christ.  It used to be more common (and still is in some places) to refer to fellow

members as “brother” or “sister.”  These were terms of respect used by children of their elders and by members in their conversation with one another.

There is a fundamental difference between the church in the New Testament and the Nation of Israel in the Old Testament.  The nation of Israel was composed of every member of the society.  One came into the chosen nation by virtue of being born.

Unlike the nation of Israel, the church is not composed of every member of society.  It is not by birth that one comes into the church but by virtue of a new birth on the basis of one’s beliefs.

America was never a Christian nation.  Only individuals can be Christians, not nations or societies.  John wrote in the first chapter of his gospel, “But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”

Only believers have the right to become children of God, to be born again.  Believers are those who have heard the story of Jesus and accepted it as true.  Believers are those who have examined the evidence and reached a conclusion that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

As Jesus taught Nicodemus, the new birth is a birth “of water and Spirit.”  Not of Spirit only, not of water only, but a birth of water and Spirit.  Baptism is an essential part of the new birth taught by Jesus.  And its not just any baptism as the Bible clearly teaches in Acts 19.  When Paul came to Ephesus he found disciples who had not been properly baptized.  These he “rebaptized” in the name of the Lord Jesus.

When Jesus sent his disciples out into the world to preach and baptize, he undoubtedly had in mind a baptism such as that which he had received from the John the Baptist.

Mark tells us in the first chapter of his gospel, “And it came about in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him.”

Notice that Jesus was not baptized with “water from the Jordan.”  Neither was he baptized “beside the Jordan.”  Jesus was baptized “in the Jordan.”  Following his immersion he came “up out of the water.”

In the New Testament, the church consists of all who have been saved by the grace of God.  It is God who adds to His church those who are being saved.  When Jesus returns He will “present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.”

What is the church?  It is those people who have heard the call of God and responded.  It is those people who have committed themselves to follow Jesus wherever He may lead.  It is those who have come out of the world into the family of God.