What is the Church?
Introductory Notes
I have been reflecting on the doctrine of the church for some time. I grew up being taught to love the church. Certain habitual patterns of the Christian life, like weekly church attendance (as much as possible) was not only tradition for my parents, but was informed by the Word of God and a desire to obey Him in love.
Over my first 6 years of ministry, I have been pressed to defend a doctrine of the church at a very fundamental level. This is quite understandable. We live in a time where there is a plethora of denominations. There is extensive ignorance among the clergy as to what the church is. There is an anti-authoritarian impulse in our culture, that sometimes rightly balks against the binding of the conscience that happens in some churches, but then will at other times wrongly reject the church and the church as an organized entity all-together. Then COVID lockdowns happened, and every manner of opinion on what the church is and is all about was expressed from various sectors of the Christian Church.
As I have worked through the various Biblical, historic, confessional, and pastoral questions, I have found it increasingly unhelpful to focus on denominational distinctives, as much as I believe that having broader church courts that give ministers accountability on their doctrine and life is eminently helpful and important in an age of mass confusion. I love Christ and His Church. My denomination (or technically communion), is only part of that church, and I am called to love anything that Christ loves, even if I disagree with it in certain areas of theology.
It is one of the sad results of the reformation, not that we focus on the doctrines of grace and salvation, but that we increasingly do so at the expense of other doctrines. In 2025, in the West, we think in terms of “personal salvation” and often ignore the great Biblical truths or the teaching of 1900 years on the church. Luther himself taught “justification by faith alone”, but he did not teach the doctrine of “justification by faith alone” alone.
In keeping with Luther’s faithful teaching on the doctrine of the church, if you follow the groups of Lutherans that still believe the Bible, you will see that a rich doctrine of the church as well as Biblically-shaped liturgical practice has been preserved through the centuries. Even though I disagree with Lutherans on minor aspects of their theology, I honor them for promoting Biblical depth of thought and practice.
In light of these reflections, I want to share a couple articles that I have written thus far, as an example of the process of developing a Biblical doctrine of the church. You can find them all on Kuyperian commentary here, here, here, and here. These are specifically on the topic of ecclesiology (meaning, the doctrine of the church). They all can be found in my archives here on Substack as well.
I write as a pastor, seeking to communicate these truths in a way that everyone can understand.
Besides or in addition to what I write, there are many good sources that do draw lines of argument directly from Scripture. I have books on my shelves from Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Vos, Hodge, Letham, Van Genderen & Velema, Berkhof and many more faithful pastors that are constantly going back to Scripture to make their case for the beauty & glory of the church: in its preaching, its sacraments, its government, its marks, its beauty, and its absolute centrality in being the means by which Christ spreads His kingdom in this world.
The knee-jerk reaction of our age is to reject such literature/writing as unpractical, heady, academic. But in so doing you are rejecting the work of men who read their Bibles, prayed over their Bibles, preached the Bible, and who constantly appeal to the Bible. One expression of humility, which our Lord called us to, is to learn from such men and to see how the Spirit worked through them.
Foundations
You see then, that the assumption, the starting point, the axiomatic basis for truth that I start with, as do my friends and mentors is that God’s Word is authoritative, sufficient, inerrant, clear. When there is a fog or a lack of clarity, the problem resides in me, not the Word of God.
I concur with the authors of the theses of Berne then that “The holy Christian Church, whose only Head is Christ, is born of the Word of God, and abides in the same, and listens not to the voice of a stranger.” This truth itself, can be demonstrated in the words of the Apostle Peter:
“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (I Peter 1:22-25)
I believe One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
So what is the church? The Bible speaks of the church, many today speak of the church. I will seek to answer some of the fundamentals of this question below.
One of the key passages is when Peter makes his confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and then Jesus responds and says to him: “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.” (Matt. 16:18)
The word for church in this passage is “ἐκκλησία” or ekklesia, referring to an assembly, particularly a public assembly or gathering. This assembly takes on its own spiritual authority as we see through the Books of Acts and the letters of Paul. If we would draw lines back to the Old Testament, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament often translated qahal or ‘קהל’ as “ἐκκλησία” or ekklesia.
The Old Testament had two primary words for this assembly, including qahal and eda. Two examples of this word qahal would be when the congregation gathers at Sinai (Deut. 5:22) or the Temple (I K 8:22).
Even though these words are at times used in different ways, that does not detract that the religious community is fundamentally an assembly that gathers together.
Thus, a fair definition of “the church” is the assembly of believers as they gather in faith & obedience to Jesus Christ. The Church gathers around Jesus Christ.
As a pastor in the early church, Irenaeus said:
“Where the church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the church and all grace.”
(Irenaeus, Adv. haer., 3.24.1)
This is pivotal because we see in the Scriptures and throughout history that Jesus who is the sole Head of the Church, rules His Church through His Word and Spirit. Some denominations will emphasize the Word and other may emphasize the Spirit, but we must be clear that the Spirit points to the Word and the Word is inspired by the Spirit, the Spirit opens our eyes to understand the Word.
In the Old Testament that assembly was fixed in Israel, but in the New Testament times, we see churches spring up all over the Mediterranean world over the book of Acts. Thus, we have not only the assembly, but also the assemblies. Not only the church, but the churches.
The Church and the Churches
In I Cor. 14:33, Paul speaks not only of the church, but of the churches. He writes, in laying out some of the basic principles for church order (like an ordering that demands a male clergy): “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints…”
It is in covenanting with a church that gathers in obedience to Jesus and His Word, that gathers to worship the Triune God, that we find unity with the churches throughout a region or across the world and all times and ages.
Throughout the New Testament, this is interchangeable as the authors speak of the church, and then speak of the church in its local assembly or assemblies.
The Marks of a Church
People often mark themselves out by a certain set of convictions, whether that is Reformed or Baptist or Anglican or Lutheran. Even to call oneself “non-denominational” is a way to label your set of convictions, whether right or wrong. In fact, non-denominational can be very sectarian in its own way, and because many won’t define their doctrines, they are subject to various sins and errors. to use various labels is a way of identifying convictions that you are convinced have been derived from Scripture. These labels are often only secondary, as much as these differences matter. But it is important to recognize because you will find “Reformed Churches” that believe the Bible and you will find those that don’t believe the Bible. Similarly, as much as I disagree with Baptists on items and sometimes strongly so, I recognize that again there are “Baptist Churches” that believe the Bible, and some that don’t. In all these categories, you will find Churches that are so deformed, that they hardly look like a church anymore.
The marks that will help you distinguish between what a church is and what is not a church are these: faithful preaching, celebration of the sacraments, and spiritual discipline to protect the fellowship of the church (including rebuke of sin, correction, forgiveness and reconciliation).
As you dig deeper into the Old and New Testaments, you will find that there is also a government that is connected with the church (I Tim. 3, Titus 1-2, I Peter 5, Heb. 13:18). Her ministry is identified (marked out) by preaching (I Cor. 2, II Tim. 4:1-5, I Peter 1:22-25), the celebration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (I Cor. 1, 11), and Christian fellowship of which spiritual church discipline is an crucial part (Matt. 18, I Cor. 5, I Cor. 16:21).
Picking a Church
It can be hard for new believers, those seeking after God, or even Christians, to “pick a church.” Nevertheless, Christ commands you to participate in His Church, to live in covenant with those who are in covenant with Him, to love what He loves (Read I John, for example). All true believers are called to join with His Church (Matt. 12:30, Isaiah 49:22, Rev. 17:14).
Yet, He does not command you to do so naively or without discretion. The smorgasbord of churches, does not help in this at all, so you must seek to do so in subjection to Christ who is the Head of His Church. This is why we must go to the Word, and discern the clarity of the marks above. The Bible really does teach on what a church should manifest in its worship, its government, its life. And we are duty bound to live in obedience to Christ who governs the church by His Word and Spirit.
In this, you should be aware that the church on this side of heaven is still being purged and purified. A husband’s love for his wife with her imperfections, ought to be a mirror image of Christ’s love for the church in spite of her imperfections, and as a way of purifying her.
Ephesians 5:25–30 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”
A saint is Biblically defined as a “holy one.” The term is not just reserved to men of old of great holiness. The saint is called to pray for this church, to love her and to serve her. That is why God calls holy men (men washed and sanctified in the death of Jesus and renewed by the power of His resurrection) to govern her as elders and deacons (I Tim. 3). He sends godly men like Titus and Timothy to open the Word, as under-shepherds to the chief shepherd Jesus Christ (I Pet. 5) so that she might be purified by water and the Word (Eph. 5:26).
So one of the questions you should ask as you look for a church is this: are the pastors and elders and deacons zealous for the unity and holiness of the church? To add a few more. Are they bold? Do they care about my soul? Is the Word of Christ their highest authority?
There is an old hymn, the Church’s One Foundation that expresses some of these Biblical truths.
Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping;
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.The Church’s One Foundation
One of the historic distinctions that has arisen from reflection on this tension between New Creation and the remaining imperfections of the Church in the Bible is this. There is a distinction between the Church militant and the Church triumphant. The Church will not be perfect until Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead, and in the meantime, as a Puritan pastor Cotton Matther said “for the faithful, wars will never cease.” We taste the future glory of heaven in the church, but we still must fight sin and error in the present.
And yet, we find our unity in Jesus Christ. Christ cannot be divided.
By the eyes of faith, we see the day when the Church militant will be the Church triumphant, even as the smoke and the shouts of warfare rise around in the present.
That’s all for now. I plan to write more, as I get questions and feedback and as I continue to reflect on the Word of God and the way in which the Spirit has led the church of all times and ages in obedience to the Word of God.
As an addendum, here is Pastor Voddie Baucham’s last sermon before going to be with the Lord this past week. It happens to be on this topic of ecclesiology. It is entitled “Be Careful How You Talk about Christ’s Bride.”
Note. This was also published over at nathanzekveld.substack.com
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
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