What Makes a Church Biblical?

Question 09076

People ask me what makes a biblical church far more often than they used to, and I take that as a healthy sign. It usually means somebody has been let down, or has moved to a new town, or has begun reading the New Testament and noticed that the churches described there do not look much like the one they attend.

The question needs care, because two errors sit either side of it. One is to make the definition so narrow that only congregations agreeing with us on every detail qualify. The other is to make it so broad that any gathering with a cross on the wall counts. Scripture is more specific than the second and more generous than the first.

What Makes a Biblical Church, and What Does Not

Start by clearing away the things that do not settle the question. Age does not. A congregation founded in 1750 may have abandoned the gospel by 1950. Size does not. Numerical growth can indicate the Spirit at work or it can indicate a well marketed product. Style does not either, and this is where much heat is generated for very little light. Organ or guitar, robes or open necks, liturgy or extempore prayer, none of these determines whether a congregation is a biblical church.

What Scripture actually gives us is a set of functions and marks. Luke’s summary of the first congregation is a useful starting point: they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42). Four commitments, and every one of them is still recognisable in a healthy congregation today.

The Gospel Rightly Preached

The first and non-negotiable mark is that the gospel is preached truly. Paul’s language in Galatians 1:8-9 is as strong as any in the New Testament: even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached, let him be accursed. A body that gets this wrong is not a defective church; it has ceased to be one.

That means salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus, His death in the place of sinners, His bodily resurrection, and the call to repent and believe. Where those are proclaimed, a real church exists even if a great deal else is untidy. Where they are absent, no amount of history, beauty or busyness supplies the lack.

I would add that a biblical church does not simply hold the gospel in its constitution but preaches it audibly and regularly. Documents do not save anybody. I have visited churches whose statement of faith was impeccable and whose pulpit had not addressed the cross in living memory.

Scripture Given Its Proper Authority

Closely tied to the gospel is the standing given to the Bible. In a biblical church the text governs the teaching rather than illustrating it. The preacher’s task is to say what the passage says, and the congregation’s task is to check that he has (Acts 17:11). That relationship is what keeps a church from drifting with whatever the culture currently finds plausible.

This is why I press so hard on consecutive expository preaching. It is not the only legitimate method, but it has the great advantage of forcing a congregation to hear the parts of Scripture that nobody would choose. I have written on that in what expository preaching is.

The Ordinances Rightly Observed

Jesus left His church two ordinances and no more. Baptism marks entry, the believer’s public identification with His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). The Lord’s Supper marks continuance, proclaiming His death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26). A congregation that neglects either, or that turns either into something that conveys saving grace, has departed from what was handed down.

As a Baptist I hold that baptism is for those who have believed, and that immersion best pictures burial and resurrection. I hold the Lord’s Supper to be a memorial rather than a means of grace conveyed through the elements, and I keep an open table for any believer walking rightly with God and with others. Those convictions are secondary matters over which I do not break fellowship, but they are not matters of indifference to me.

Discipline Rightly Exercised

The mark most commonly missing today is discipline, and its absence is why so many congregations become impossible to distinguish from the world around them. Jesus gave plain instruction in Matthew 18:15-17, and Paul applied it with vigour in Corinth. A church that never addresses serious unrepentant sin among its members is not being kind. It is abandoning people to their sin and telling the watching town that the gospel changes nothing.

Discipline in a biblical church is restorative in intent, patient in process, and public only at the final stage. It is aimed at recovering the erring believer, protecting the flock, and honouring the name of Jesus. I have set out the process more fully in what church discipline is.

Leadership Rightly Ordered

The New Testament knows two offices, not a hierarchy. Elders, also called overseers and pastors, carry spiritual oversight and teaching. Deacons carry practical service so that the elders are free for prayer and the word, which is the pattern established in Acts 6:1-4. The qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are almost entirely about character rather than ability, which tells you what God values in leadership.

In my own congregation the eldership gives spiritual direction and the membership holds final authority at church meetings. We bring recommendations and we are bound by the decision even when it is not the one we would have chosen. That accountability is not a procedural courtesy; it is a safeguard against the accumulation of personal power that has wrecked so many churches.

A People Rightly Gathered

A biblical church is a body of believers who actually gather, know one another, and are committed to one another. The New Testament letters assume a defined community with a known membership, since you cannot put someone out of a fellowship that nobody has been put into. Love one another, bear one another’s burdens, confess your sins to one another, and the several dozen other reciprocal commands all presuppose people who are genuinely present.

This is where the modern habit of attending anonymously falls down. You can consume teaching from a distance. You cannot be a member of a body from a distance, any more than a hand can contribute to an arm in another county. I have discussed the digital form of this question in is online church biblical.

Prayer, Giving and the Ordinary Means

One further mark deserves attention because it is so easily lost. A biblical church prays together. Luke lists the prayers alongside the apostles’ teaching in his summary of the first congregation, and the book of Acts shows a body that turned to God corporately at every significant moment. A church whose prayer meeting has quietly died has lost something it will not replace with better programmes.

Giving belongs here too. The New Testament congregations supported their teachers, cared for their poor, and sent relief to believers they had never met (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). Money is one of the plainest indicators of what a body actually believes, which is presumably why Jesus spoke about it so frequently and so directly.

I call these the ordinary means deliberately. There is nothing spectacular about a congregation that reads, prays, sings, gives, breaks bread and cares for one another week after week, and that is precisely the point. A biblical church is built by the patient repetition of ordinary obedience rather than by a series of remarkable events, and the churches I have seen stand up under real pressure were all built that way.

Marks We Wrongly Prize

Finally, a word about the tests we apply that Scripture does not. Enthusiasm is not a mark. Emotional intensity is not a mark. Numerical growth is not a mark, and neither is numerical decline, whatever the faithful remnant may tell itself. Ministry programmes, buildings, professional presentation and community reputation are all useful servants and terrible masters.

Apply the biblical tests instead and you will sometimes find a genuine church in a shabby hall with forty people, and sometimes fail to find one in a full auditorium. That is not a comfortable conclusion for anybody, which is probably a sign that it is the right one.

So, now what?

Take the marks in this article and hold them honestly against your own congregation, starting with the pulpit. Is the gospel preached plainly enough that a first time visitor would hear how to be saved? Is Scripture governing what is said, or decorating it?

If you are looking for a church, ask about these things directly and do not be embarrassed to. Ask what they believe about the Bible, what they do about sin among members, and who makes decisions. If you are already in a congregation with weaknesses, remember that a biblical church is not a perfect one, and that patient service usually does more good than a swift departure. On that, see when it is right to leave a church and the marks of a true church.

What is the one thing in your congregation that most needs to move back towards the pattern of Scripture, and what part could you play in that?

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Acts 2:42 (ESV)