What is the Church?

The church is not an event, although it might have events. The church is not a a building, although the church might use a building. The church is not a program, a system, or even an organization, although the church might use programs, systems and organizations to develop itself. According to scripture, the church is not defined by any of these things, yet at times includes all of these things.

The Church is (and always will be) a community. It’s a community that is defined globally (Acts 1:8, 8:1; Revelation 5:9-10, 14:6), historically (Hebrews 11:1-12:1) and locally (throughout Acts & the Epistles). It’s a community of varied sizes, from small house churches, to big city churches, to networks of churches in a region. It’s a community that has certain distinguishable practices: the preaching of God’s word, the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the lifting up of one voice in worship, the mutual spurring on towards a mature faith and the carrying out of God’s redemptive plan in the world. It’s also a community that has God’s appointed structures and systems in place to help it carry out God’s calling. But most of all, the church is a community that is built on (and for) the Gospel of Jesus Christ.