The Church

This is a question that will challenge everyone, including preachers, pastors, evangelists and religious leaders: How many people does it take to form a church? and what is the church? Firstly, let’s determine what the church is, because this really answers the first question (how many people does it take to form a church) as well as the second. The word church, according to Strongs Concordance (which defines the word directly from the Greek or Hebrew), means: a calling out, that is, (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both): - assembly, church. Total KJV occurrences: 115 As you can see, the church is definitely not a worship building that you go to, as todays dictionary states it is. It is a very misused word. Christ Himself was the very first to use this word, in the passage where He names one of His disciples ‘Peter,’ which means ‘rock’, and says that “upon this rock I will build my church” (Matt 16:18). (We know that God used Peter to bring many to Christ, and lead churches / bodies of believers throughout Acts). The church referred to the body of believers. Christians are the church. An individual believer is a Christian (follower of Christ), all Christians are members of Christ’s church. When Christians gather together they ARE the church / the members of the body of Christ3: assembly = two or more people gathered together. In one of the earliest mentions of the church (the third time the word church was used in the Bible, Acts 2:38-41), Peter was preaching and people were gladly receiving his word: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things in common … And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” Highlighted here are some key phrases. Phrases that church-going people who preach falsely on going to church should take note of. If you read the highlighted phrases, you will get the gist of what the passage is telling us about the church (re-read the highlighted phrases). They worshipped God together, had all things in common, with one accord. And most importantly, the LORD added to the church. We see here that the believers were called the church. They gathered / came together in the temple and in house to house to worship the Lord and they were still called the church. That’s because the Lord’s definition of the church IS the body of believers (you can clearly see that here). And Jesus said that THE church (all the believers in the world) are “MY church” (Matt 16:18). If you work your way through and read the references of the word church, when you read them in context it all makes sense. In Acts 7:38 it says: “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:” The church here is those who believed in God (and the promised land, also referring to Christ) in the wilderness of the Old Testament. This emphasizes that the church is the body of believers, those who believe. Of course, to those in the wildness, Christ hadn’t come yet; but they believed in God’s promise that He would come and therefore they were Old Testament ‘believers’, in that sense, and were called the church. In Acts 8:3, it says that Saul “made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women…” The body of believers gathering in houses were persecuted by Saul. Emphasis on the fact that persecuted believers WERE the church, and were gathering in houses. Acts 11:26: “And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” The disciples were assembling (gathering) with the church (the body of believers), and were teaching the believers. This verse is also highlighted because it was the first time disciples were called Christians, which means in its literal translation, ‘follower of Christ’.4 The Bible does not say who first called believers Christians, but it does make a point that the disciples (who were spreading the Gospel and teaching) were first called ‘followers of Christ’ /Christians in Antioch. In any case, for a believer to be called a Christian honours and acknowledges Christ. In the same passage, just a few verses before this(vs 21-24), it is clear that there were many believers in this area who were gathering together, worshipping the Lord together and being taught by Apostles. “a great number was added” and they “exhorted them all” and “much people was added”. As aforesaid, the relevance is that believers in Christ were now also referred to as Christians (followers of Christ), a very Christ-honouring name. How many believers does it take to form a church? All believers in Christ around the world are the church. Christ is the head of any two or more believers who are gathering together. (To ‘be in the midst’ means there is at least one on either side of you, so it takes a minimum of two so you can be in the midst) Christ gave a simple declaration in Mat 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The context before this verse is about rebuking sin, but the verse alone also stands as exact truth and declaration expressed by Christ Himself. So, simply, as confirmed by Jesus’ own words, if there is a minimum of just two believers gathered or assembled together in His name, He is in the midst of them. Two believers have fellowship together in Christ. As mentioned earlier, a believer is a follower of Christ, and when these Christians are gathered together (it only takes two or more to make a gathering), being members of the body of Christ, they are the church. In a town or city with no other believers or Christians around, if two Christians gathered or assembled together to fellowship, worship God and read His Word, then they ARE the church, both spiritually and physically. They are the church in the spiritual sense because they are part of the body of Christ, and they are the church in the physical sense because they, as Christians, are gathered together to worship God. How many people are needed to form a “gathering”? A minimum of “two or three”, according to God’s Word. In order to “gather” into “one” you need to have two or more, otherwise a gathering doesn’t exist. ‘Church’ in a Biblical context is always a plural word, it has to be, because the church is all the believers in the world, which is more than one believer. One is singular and one is plural - “I am a believer in Christ” (singular), or “We believers are the church of Christ” (plural). So in a literal sense it only takes a minimum of two people to make a gathering. Does that mean that believers should cut themselves off from or not seek to have fellowship with other likeminded Christians who live nearby just because “they are the church”? Absolutely not. Christians will always seek to fellowship with other believers, as many as want to worship and follow God. The church (body of believers) of Christ is the Christians, wherever they are and however many there are, like-minded or not, Christians who have truly been saved are the church. Christians should believe God’s Word as it is written (2 Tim 3:16), obey God’s Word as it is written (John 14:15), they can’t add to or take away from God’s Word (Rev 22:18), and mustn’t teach/preach/believe heresies or another doctrine (Tit 3:10; Rom 16:17). Christians should exhort and admonish each other in the love of Christ. 1 John 4:10: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Ephesians 4:16 “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” 1 Corinthians 12:12 “For the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ”. There are many believers in the world, and they are all members of the body of Christ. Not all believers can fellowship in the one place (they don’t all live near each other), but they are all members of the body and one in Christ. Colossians 1:13-19 “…and he is the head of the body, the church”