What is the Church?
Question 09002
The word “church” is one of the most familiar in the Christian vocabulary, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood. In popular usage it refers to a building, a denomination, or a vague spiritual community. The New Testament has something far more precise in mind. Understanding what the church actually is, where it began, and how it relates to God’s wider purposes is essential for every believer, because it shapes how we worship, how we relate to one another, and how we understand our place in the unfolding story of redemption.
The Word Behind the Word
The English word “church” translates the Greek ekklesia, which means a called-out assembly. In its non-religious usage in the first century, ekklesia referred to a public gathering of citizens summoned for a specific purpose, and this background is not incidental. The church is not a voluntary association of people who happen to share religious interests. It is a company of people called out by God, through the gospel, for His purposes. The initiative belongs to God. The people respond, but the calling is His.
Jesus Himself introduced the term in Matthew 16:18: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The future tense is significant. Jesus spoke of something He would build, not something that already existed. The church was not yet in existence during His earthly ministry. It was a new work, promised by Christ and brought into being through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
When the Church Began
The church began at Pentecost (Acts 2). The outpouring of the Spirit, the baptism of believers into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13), and the formation of the new covenant community are linked events that together mark the birth of the church as a distinct entity in God’s programme. Before Pentecost, there were followers of Jesus, but there was no body of Christ indwelt collectively by the Spirit. After Pentecost, there was.
This has significant implications. The church is not a continuation or extension of Israel. It is not the “new Israel” or the spiritual replacement of God’s Old Testament people. It is something Paul describes as a musterion, a mystery, something “not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:5). The specific mystery is that Gentiles are fellow heirs with Jewish believers, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Ephesians 3:6). This could not have been discerned from the Old Testament alone, which is precisely what “mystery” means in its New Testament usage: something previously hidden, now revealed.
The Universal Church and the Local Church
The New Testament uses ekklesia in two complementary senses. The universal church is the company of all genuine believers across all time and all places, united to Christ by the Spirit. Every person who has trusted Christ from Pentecost to the Rapture belongs to this body. Ephesians 1:22-23 describes Christ as “head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” This is a reality no single congregation can fully express, yet every genuine believer participates in it.
The local church is the visible, gathered expression of that reality in a specific place. When Paul writes to “the church of God that is in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2), he addresses a particular, identifiable assembly of believers meeting in a particular city. The New Testament gives far more practical attention to the local church than to the universal, not because the universal church is less real, but because the local church is where the body of Christ becomes visible and tangible. It is where believers are taught, cared for, held accountable, and equipped for service. It is where the ordinances are administered, where discipline is exercised, and where the gospel is proclaimed to the surrounding community.
What the Church Is Called
The New Testament describes the church through a rich variety of images, each illuminating a different dimension of its nature. It is the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), emphasising the organic unity of believers with one another and with their Head. It is the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-27), pointing to the intimate, covenant love between Christ and His people, and to the future consummation when the bride is presented spotless to her Bridegroom. It is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21-22), a living building in which God dwells by His Spirit. It is a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), a people with direct access to God through Christ and a calling to declare His excellences. It is a flock under the care of the Good Shepherd (John 10:16; 1 Peter 5:2-3), dependent on His guidance and provision. No single image captures the whole reality. Together, they describe a community that is simultaneously relational, spiritual, organic, and purposeful.
What the Church Is For
The church exists for the glory of God. Everything else flows from that governing purpose. Worship is the gathered response of God’s people to who He is and what He has done. Edification is the building up of the body through teaching, fellowship, and mutual care, so that every member grows toward maturity in Christ (Ephesians 4:12-16). Evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel to those who have not yet received it, carrying out the Great Commission that Jesus entrusted to His disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Service and compassion express the love of Christ in tangible ways to the surrounding community and to the world. These are not competing priorities but aspects of a single calling: to be the visible presence of Christ on earth until He returns.
The church is not building the kingdom. It is proclaiming the King. The kingdom will be established when Christ returns to reign. In the meantime, the church faithfully witnesses, serves, grows, and waits, holding fast to the hope that the same Jesus who ascended will come again in the same way (Acts 1:11).
So, now what?
If you belong to Christ, you belong to His church. That is not optional. The New Testament knows nothing of solitary Christianity, of believers who love Jesus but have no commitment to a local body of believers. The church is not a building you attend when it suits you. It is a family you belong to, a body in which you function, and a community in which you are known, loved, challenged, and held accountable. Find a church that teaches the Bible faithfully, commit to it, serve within it, and allow it to shape you. The church is imperfect because it is made up of imperfect people, but it is Christ’s own creation, purchased with His blood, and He has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18 (ESV)