“On one page, Jesus says that he will build his church, and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18)…. a couple pages later, the young believer encounters Jesus telling the disciples they should address unresolved sin by telling it ‘to the church’ (Matt. 18:17).” - 9 Marks
I want to talk about what “the church” is. This will be a high-level discussion, not a defense of a particular kind of church (Baptists v. Methodists, etc.). I want to talk about this because I fear we forget just how important it is to get this right. As sectarian battles light up social media and the news (with no end in sight), this deceptively simple issue deserves some consideration.
There are different ways we use the word “church:”
Church membership has fallen on hard times. Some question whether formal membership is taught in the Bible. Isn’t it a man-made tradition that ought to be abandoned? Others accept it, but wonder if it has outlived its original purpose.
Increasingly, church membership is viewed as optional and is ignored, dismissed, and even actively resisted. This is not only true of individuals, but of pastors and churches as well. Are those who practice church membership beating a dead horse? It this simply a shop-worn tradition that should be discarded, or is church membership a biblical practice that ought to be restored to its original significance?
In this excerpt from his work The Local Church of the New Testament, Richard Clearwaters discusses problems he sees in ecclesiology.1
Three common errors cause Christians to fail in having the proper regard for Christ’s earthly church and its officers and its organization.
“I recognize that some will try to work these passages into a local-only view. I don’t agree with their conclusions but appreciate the valiant effort.”
