The church — what it is and how it is ordered

The beginner's article on the church asks why you cannot follow Jesus alone. This one asks the doctrinal questions behind that: what the church is, how we recognise a true one, how it should be governed, and what it is for. The technical name is ecclesiology.

These are not academic questions in Nigeria. A new church can begin in a classroom on Sunday and register a ministry by Monday. Some of the healthiest congregations in the world meet in such places — and so do some of the most abusive. Knowing what a church is meant to be is the only protection against what it should never become.

What the word means

The New Testament word is ekklēsia. In ordinary Greek it meant an assembly of citizens called together — the word is used of the town assembly at Ephesus in Acts 19:32-41. The Greek translation of the Old Testament had already used it for the congregation of Israel gathered before the Lord (Deuteronomy 4:10).

So when Jesus says, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18), he is not founding an organisation or a building. He is gathering a people. The church is the community of those God has called out of the world and into fellowship with his Son (1 Corinthians 1:9). It is his: "my church". It belongs to Christ before it belongs to any denomination, founder or pastor.

Universal and local

Scripture uses the word in two main ways.

The universal church is the whole company of believers in every place and every age, united to Christ. "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25) — that is not one congregation but all of them.

The local church is a particular gathering of believers who meet, worship and live under shared leadership: "the church of God that is in Corinth" (1 Corinthians 1:2), "the church in their house" (Romans 16:5).

Some theologians add a related distinction between the visible church (all who profess faith and belong) and the invisible church (those truly united to Christ, known fully only to God). Augustine already knew that wheat and weeds grow together in the visible church until the harvest (Matthew 13:24-30). The distinction keeps us humble: membership of a congregation does not guarantee new birth, and not every true believer is yet visible in a congregation.

Four images

The New Testament has no single definition of the church. It has pictures, and each guards a truth.

• A body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:22-23). Christ is the head; believers are members with different gifts, all needed. This image guards unity in diversity: no member can say "I do not need you", and no member is unimportant.
• A bride (Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:7-8). Christ loves, cleanses and will one day present the church to himself. This image guards love and holiness: the church is cherished, and it is being made beautiful.
• A temple (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-5). Believers are living stones built on the apostles and prophets, with Christ the cornerstone, as "a dwelling place for God by the Spirit". This image guards God's presence: the Spirit dwells not in a building but in his people.
• A family (1 Timothy 3:15; Galatians 6:10). The church is "the household of God", brothers and sisters with a common Father. This image guards belonging: the church is not a crowd of strangers.

Kwame Bediako, the Ghanaian theologian, observed that African Christians often find the biblical language of the church as a family and a people more natural than the individualism of much Western Christianity. The images are not foreign imports; in many ways they land at home.

Marks of the church

How do you know a church is a true church? Christians have answered in two complementary ways.

The four classic marks

The Nicene Creed (in its 381 form) confesses belief in "one holy catholic and apostolic Church". These four words describe what the church is in Christ, and what it must strive to be.

"Catholic" here means universal, not Roman Catholic. Protestants who recite the creed are confessing that they belong to the same worldwide church.

The traditions read "apostolic" differently. Catholic and Orthodox Christians see it as including an unbroken succession of bishops from the apostles. Most Protestants see it primarily as faithfulness to apostolic teaching, now found in the New Testament.

The Reformation marks

The Reformers asked a practical question: when the visible church is corrupt, how do you recognise a true congregation? They answered with visible signs. The Augsburg Confession (1530) named the pure preaching of the gospel and the right administration of the sacraments. The Belgic Confession (1561) added a third, church discipline:

• The word rightly preached. The gospel of Christ, from Scripture, faithfully proclaimed.
• The sacraments rightly administered. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, given as Christ commanded.
• Discipline faithfully exercised. The church cares enough about holiness to correct and restore its members.

These marks are a useful check on any church, old or new. A congregation with excellent music, a famous pastor and large crowds, but no clear gospel, is missing the first and most important mark.

How the church is governed

Here Christians disagree, and honestly. The New Testament describes leaders and some of their tasks but does not give a complete constitution. Three broad models have emerged, and each is held by faithful Christians who believe it is biblical. The general term for church government is polity.

Episcopal

Government by bishops (from episkopos, overseer). Bishops oversee clergy and congregations in a region, and usually ordain. Supporters point to apostolic oversight of churches, to Timothy and Titus acting with authority over several congregations, and to the early emergence of a single bishop in each city, attested in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, c. AD 110. Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and many Methodist churches are episcopal, as are many African Pentecostal and independent churches that have bishops or a general overseer.

Presbyterian

Government by elders (from presbyteros). Each congregation is led by a body of elders, and congregations are joined in regional and national courts — presbyteries, synods, assemblies — which can hear appeals and exercise oversight. Supporters point to the plurality of elders in every church (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5) and to the council in Acts 15, where apostles and elders together settled a question for many churches.

Congregational

Government by the congregation under Christ. Each local church is self-governing, usually led by elders or a pastor and deacons, with final decisions — receiving members, choosing leaders, discipline — resting with the gathered members. Supporters point to the whole church's role in Matthew 18:17, in choosing the seven in Acts 6:3-5 and in exercising discipline in 1 Corinthians 5:4-5. Most Baptist and many independent evangelical churches are congregational.

The offices

The New Testament names two ongoing offices in the local church.

Elders, overseers, pastors

In the New Testament the words presbyteros (elder), episkopos (overseer) and poimēn (shepherd, pastor) are used of the same people. In Acts 20:17 and 28 Paul summons the elders of Ephesus and tells them the Spirit has made them overseers to shepherd the church; Titus 1:5-7 moves from elder to overseer without a break. Most Protestants therefore see one office described from three angles: maturity, oversight, and care.

Their tasks are to teach (1 Timothy 3:2), to shepherd and protect the flock (Acts 20:28-31; 1 Peter 5:2) and to lead (1 Timothy 5:17). Their qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 are overwhelmingly about character: self-control, faithfulness in marriage, hospitality, gentleness, not a lover of money, managing the home well, not a recent convert. Only one — "able to teach" — is a skill.

Episcopal churches add a distinct order of bishops above presbyters, and Catholic and Orthodox churches understand the presbyter as a priest. Protestants generally read the New Testament as describing one teaching and ruling office, often exercised by several elders together.

Deacons

Deacons (from diakonos, servant) serve the practical needs of the church so that the word is not neglected. Many see the seven appointed in Acts 6:1-6 as a prototype, though they are not called deacons there. Their qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:8-13 are again about character: dignity, honesty, sobriety, proven faithfulness.

The question of women in ministry

Christians who share a high view of Scripture disagree about whether women may serve as elders or pastors. Both main positions deserve to be heard as their holders state them.

Complementarians hold that men and women are equal in dignity and both gifted for ministry, but that the office of elder — the authoritative teaching and oversight of the church — is reserved for qualified men. They point to 1 Timothy 2:11-14, where Paul grounds his instruction in creation rather than local culture, and to the elder qualification "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2). Catholic and Orthodox churches, for their own sacramental reasons, also reserve the priesthood to men.

Egalitarians hold that all offices are open to qualified men and women alike. They point to Galatians 3:28; to women who prophesied (Acts 2:17-18; Acts 21:9; 1 Corinthians 11:5); to Phoebe, a diakonos of the church at Cenchreae (Romans 16:1); to Priscilla, who with her husband taught Apollos (Acts 18:26); and to Junia, described as "well known to the apostles" or "outstanding among the apostles" (Romans 16:7) — the Greek can be read either way. They read 1 Timothy 2 as addressing a specific problem in Ephesus.

Both sides agree that women served in significant ways in the early church, that every believer is gifted by the Spirit, and that the question must be settled by Scripture rather than by culture — whether a traditional culture that silences women or a modern one that dismisses Paul. This is a second-order issue: it rightly shapes which church you join, but it is not a test of whether someone is a Christian.

Discipline: Matthew 18

Jesus gave the church a pattern for dealing with sin between members:

1. Privately. "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother" (Matthew 18:15).
2. With one or two others. If he will not listen, take witnesses, so the matter is established fairly (Matthew 18:16; compare Deuteronomy 19:15).
3. Before the church. If he still refuses, "tell it to the church" (Matthew 18:17).
4. Removal. If he refuses even the church, "let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" — treated as outside the fellowship, which also means treated as someone to be won back.

Jesus then promises that what the church binds and looses on earth, in faithful agreement with heaven, stands (Matthew 18:18-20).

Notice the goal at every step: "you have gained your brother". Discipline is not punishment for its own sake or a tool for leaders to remove critics. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul commands the removal of an unrepentant man "so that his spirit may be saved"; in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 he urges the church to forgive and comfort him, "or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow". Restoration is the point.

What the church is for

The church does not exist for itself. It exists for God — "to the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1:12) — and it is sent.

• Worship. The church is a priesthood called to "proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
• Building up. Leaders equip the saints "for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ", until all reach maturity (Ephesians 4:11-16). Every member ministers.
• Mission. The risen Christ sends the church to "make disciples of all nations, baptising them... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). Evangelism and disciple-making are not projects of a keen few; they are why the church is still on earth.
• Witness by its life. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). A church's unity across tribe, class and language is itself a sermon (Ephesians 3:10).

The church is often weak, divided and disappointing. It was in Corinth too. Yet it is the only community Christ promised to build, and the only one against which he promised the gates of hell would not prevail (Matthew 16:18). Cyprian of Carthage, the third-century North African bishop, put it memorably: no one can have God for his Father who does not have the church for his mother. Protestants would phrase the institutional claim differently, but the pastoral truth stands. God does not raise his children alone.