What Is The Church Supposed To Be?

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The Bible doesn’t contain a concise definition of the church. Defining the local church requires looking at many Scripture passages. Lack of careful study of these passages leads to either oversimplification or over-complexity of the church.

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For example, some oversimplify by defining the church merely as “when two or three are gathered in my name…” (Matthew 18:20a). The problem with defining the church this simply is if you consider the totality of the Bible, there is so much more to a church.

If my wife and I are praying in our car, are we a church because the two of us are “gathered in His name?” Most would certainly say “no.”

Reports of “church planting movements” usually mean that there are many house-sized groups of Christians gathered. While this is wonderful, these gatherings might more closely resemble small groups within a local church than each of them being local churches.

Carolyn and I are members of New Song Church in Oceanside, California where we have several hundred small groups. But by the inadequate definition “where two or three are gathered,” we could say we have hundreds of “churches” in New Song Church. That would be confusing and misleading.

Carolyn leads one of the small groups which has about 30 women on the roster. Indeed, it is bigger than many “house churches,” but does that make it a church?

On the other hand, we must not overcomplicate the church. Some define a “local church” with stipulations that are nowhere found in the Bible:

a church building, a choir, a denominational affiliation, stained glass, a traditional Sunday School program, a Sunday bulletin, incorporation through a constitution and by-laws.

While these might prove helpful, they are not part of a biblical definition of church.

At Dynamic Church Planting International I led the development of a “Biblical definition of local church.”

The concise definition of a local church is this:

“A church is a group of believers in Christ who meet for biblical worship, learning, and mission.”

This definition is short so it can be easily related. However, it is vitally important to have a clear expanded understanding of what each part of the definition means.

Why? Because without clarification and delineation, it’s like saying the definition of an adult is someone who has reached 18 years of age. That’s a good start, but there is so much more: an adult typically has their own home, handles their finances, works a regular job, usually gets married, has children, contributes to society, and so on.

Thus, the following clarifications add the meat on the bones of the short definition of the church above:

• A church: Sometimes the Greek word translated “church” (EKKLESIA) refers to the universal church (all born again believers), but more commonly it refers to a local church, which is our meaning (1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 1:2).

• is a group of believers: To be a true believer one must be “born again” (John 3:7). This distinguishes the true church from groups and cults that can wrongly label themselves a “church.”

• who meet for biblical worship: Usually this means meeting at least weekly to practice singing, prayer, the Ordinances, exhorting and encouraging each other, giving, exercising spiritual gifts and other forms of worship. The goal of this worship is to glorify God. Biblical worship also seeks to fulfill the Greatest Commandments: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

• learning: Each church is to be coordinated and led by godly and gifted leaders. These leaders are commonly called “elders” (PRESBUTEROS) or “shepherds” (POIMEN). A third Greek word used of the same office is EPISCOPOS which signifies managing or overseeing the manpower, money, gifts of the Spirit and other resources for the good of the church. Other names for church leadership gifts and offices are also mentioned in the New Testament (Ephesians 4:11-13 “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers;” Romans 12:4-8). Regardless of their office and gifting, it is clear that spiritual maturity and character should be the hallmarks of whoever is leading the church (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1). The term “elder” is always plural except for two times when it refers to the office of elder. It wasn’t until the second century that some churches had a single elder/shepherd.[1] “The consistent New Testament pattern is a plurality of elders.[2]” While not all churches in Bible times paid their professional elders/shepherds enough to live on and sometimes leaders like Paul had to become “tentmakers” by earning their living in other ways, a church is charged with adequate compensation of its staff elders/shepherds (1 Timothy 5:17-18; 1 Corinthians 9:14b). These leaders must communicate the Word and lead the congregation.Shepherds/elders, like Timothy, must “be devoted to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). Typically, there is a primary teaching and leading shepherd/elder (1 Timothy 5:17) who leads a team of other lay and/or professional elders/shepherds who are “able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2) but who handle other ministry responsibilities and assist in leadership (Hebrews 13:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). They provide advice, partnership and accountability for each other. Sometimes there may be a team of primary teachers, as in the Antioch church (Acts 13:1). Part of the leadership role is to provide protection for the church through the correction of church discipline, (Matthew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:4-7, 11-13; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 2:15, 3:10; 1 Peter 5:2).

• and mission: We glorify God by fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission. Every believer and every church should “…go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19-20). Thus, the church’s objective is to spread to all people the joy of knowing and serving Christ. In order to accomplish this, the pattern of Acts is to go from town to town, lead people to Jesus and plant churches where believers become mature disciples who multiply Christians and churches.

Could others have a similar but different definition of church, based on Scripture? Yes!

Usually, they express the same convictions with different wordings. Other times they agree in most every aspect, but have a different understanding of a smaller point such as the sacraments. For example, they might believe that churches should practice foot washing.

Should it bother us that some have slightly different definitions of the church? I don’t think so for the following reasons:

• God could have given us a stated definition of the church in the Bible. But He chose not to. Thus, He left it open to some interpretation. I don’t know why, but I do know He didn’t make a mistake. Thus, I embrace the differences.

• There is beauty in our diversity.

I see different churches like different families within an extended family.

My parents had 5 children. Eventually, each of us married and had children. Our families are unique in many ways. No one expects us to be the same, and there is beauty in our diversity. We live in different houses, emphasize different values in education, like to do different things on vacations, spend our money in different ways, and so on.

Likewise, I love the diversity in the family of God. As long as we subscribe to the foundational doctrines of Biblical teaching, it is good that different churches see things differently and do things differently:

• Some are casual and some are formal.

• Some are loud and others quieter.

• Some traditional and some contemporary.

• Some contemplative and some directive.

In our individuality, we appeal to different people.

The beauty of a field of wildflowers is their variety. Likewise, there is beauty in churches seeing and doing things differently.

For more help with the church see these resources on my website:

• How to face Church Conflicts with Confidence

• How to Get More Out of a Church Service Even if you Don’t Enjoy Going

• 4 Reasons We Must Start New Churches Now

• The Top Ten Reasons to Plant New Churches Now

• Podcast: Which denomination is right?

• Vlog: God Loves All Kinds of Churches

• Vlog: Abandoned Churches aren’t necessarily a bad thing.

[1] Robert Saucy, The Church in God’s Program (Chicago: Moody, 1972), 148. [2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 913

How To Be Big In God’s Kingdom When You Feel Small

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I know what it’s like to feel small. Being entrepreneurial, I’ve never joined the staff of an established ministry. Instead, I’ve started new ministries which have started small.

The upside of starting from scratch is that I get to see God make something out of nothing. The downside is that I have often felt like a nothing until God creates something. (Which might be a good thing—to build humility.)

Do you feel small for some reason? If so, how do you overcome feeling inadequate, insufficient, unprepared, and ill-equipped when you are small? I’ve had to try to learn.

Here are 3 ways to be big in God’s Kingdom when you feel small:

01. Thank God that you feel small.

Do you feel small, weak, ineffective, incompetent, inadequate, understaffed, uninformed, unable? If so, congratulations, you’re a candidate for God’s powerful work through you.

So be thankful that you feel small.

Many times in Scripture God used leaders who felt small and inadequate.

Conversely, the Bible teaches that if you’re haughty, you’ll be humbled:

“God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5b KJV)“Those who honor themselves will be humbled, but people who humble themselves will be honored.” (Luke 14:11 GW)

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18 ESV)

Be grateful that when you feel small, you’re a candidate to be big in God’s Kingdom!

Scripture is clear that when I am weak, I am strong. The Apostle Paul testified:

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 ESV)

Do you feel weak and small? Thank God for your feelings of inadequacy—they can trigger God’s powerful work through you.

02. Inventory your weaknesses so you can overcome them.

The Bible says that Christians are in a spiritual battle, see Ephesians 6:12.

One of the fundamental principles of waging battle is to know your enemy.

In the classic book The Art of War, Sun Tzu made this statement:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

When we feel small, we must consider the same issues: know our enemy and know ourselves.

• Our enemy = our challenges: financial, technical, staffing, relational, informational and so on.

• Ourselves = our feelings of weakness, inadequacy, inability, ignorance, insufficiency and so on.

Often when we feel small we haven’t defined what our insufficiencies are. I’m suggesting that we define them by actually listing our weaknesses in both arenas:

• What practical inadequacies we lack.

• What emotional inadequacies we face.

The Bible teaches us to consider our practical inadequacies and count the cost: “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30 ESV)

We can count our practical inadequacies by listing:

• The budget needed

• The staff needed

• The equipment needed

• The expertise needed

• The facilities needed

• And so on

The Bible also teaches us to count our emotional inadequacies. The Apostle Paul “boasted” about his ministry milestones, but only because he had to. He said, “If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.” (2 Corinthians 11:30 NLT)

We can count our emotional inadequacies by listing:

• Our worries

• Our fears

• Our flaws

• Our temptations

• Our sins

• And so on

I’m not suggesting that you focus on your lack, but that you carefully consider needs so you can then overcome them.

Knowing what we are battling is the first step toward conquering them. Then we go to work on the inadequacies.

The Apostle Paul worked hard to overcome inadequacies saying “But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.” (1 Corinthians 15:10 NLT)

03. Step out in faith even when you feel weak, believing God to work mightily through you.

The Bible tells us how to evaluate ourselves: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12:3b NIV)

When we feel weak, this verse tells us to think both soberly and in faith.

Point 2 above tells how to think soberly. But how do we think in faith? Answer: We remember that God can use us immensely despite the fact that we feel small. Then we step out in faith trusting God to use us despite our weaknesses.

Are you aware that David was not the only giant-killer for Israel? So was Sibbecai: “And after this there arose war with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai, who was one of the descendants of the giants and the Philistines were subdued.” (1 Chronicles 20:4 ESV)

1 Chronicles 20:4-8 tells us of several more giants killed by David and his men. This passage shows us that you don’t have to be a David to make a big impact. It says that Sibbecai, Elhanan, and Jonathan the son of Shimea all defeated giants. They don’t get as much press as King David, but they, too, were giant killers.

Like David, these giant killers were normal-sized men. But they took on giants and won!

All of us can be giant killers for God’s Kingdom if we step out in faith even though we may feel small.

When the church of 200 people I led daughtered a church of 200, we doubled overnight. As that daughter church has grown, it has multiplied the size of the mother church many times over.

When my church of 200 birthed a different church of 15, the impact seemed minimal. But that church, in a small, remote community, has grown to equal the size of the mother church. It has become big in God’s Kingdom.

Too many Christians want to be a Goliath and not a David, Sibbecai, Elhanan or Jonathan. But let’s remember who won those skirmishes and that we can be big in God’s Kingdom even when we feel small.

For more help, here are other articles I’ve written on humility, pride, and confidence:

• How Reluctant Leaders Become Confident Achievers for God

• How to Survive Rejection and Find Acceptance Today

• What is the Worst Sin in the World?

• Having Just One Person to Please Brings Peace

• How to Find Confidence in a Critical World and Stay Humble

• 6 Strategies to Handle Insults Without Becoming a Doormat

• Video: Have You Been Pecked At?

• You Can Do It!

How To Handle Church Conflicts With Confidence

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One of the big surprises when I started in ministry was the amount of conflict we faced. Right from the get-go in our first church plant, there was intense conflict. Tragically that conflict was never resolved and some people left the church.

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Not long after that there was another conflict and more people left the church. I was discouraged and mystified at how this could be happening.

Over the years I’ve learned a lot from bad and good conflict experiences.

So here’s some ideas to help you handle church conflicts with confidence:

01. Remember that conflict is normal.

Conflict has existed since the beginning of church ministry. You’ll remember from scripture that early on John Mark left the church planting team led by Barnabas and Paul. His departure brought conflict between Paul and Barnabas and soon afterwards the first “church split.” See Acts 15:36-41.

Later Paul and Peter were in conflict: “But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him in public, because he was clearly in the wrong. The other Jewish believers also started acting like cowards along with Peter; and even Barnabas was swept along by their cowardly action.” (Galatians 2:11, 13 GNB)

Sometimes opposition comes from those you least expect. Even Barnabas fell into the trap of legalistic behavior and “Barney the Encourager” became a “discourager” when he opposed Paul.

Note that I didn’t say conflict is necessarily good: I said it is normal. In fact, conflict can be good and handled well if we act in a godly manner and learn from each other.

What is conflict? In its core, conflict is just a clash of opinion. It is either good or bad, godly or ungodly, depending on how we handle it.

02. Stand for Truth even when it results in severe conflict.

Most people don’t like conflict and try to avoid it. It seems often the only time we are willing to endure conflict is if our “rights” are being violated. (See James 4:1-3.) But we also need to be willing to stand up for “truth” and fight for it when necessary.

Always stand for the truth and refuse to compromise, even though conflict may result. Paul had to take on James, Peter, John and even Barnabas (see Galatians 2 above). He did so for the truth of the Gospel being available to all without observing the law.

Recently Carolyn and I talked with a couple who were in a church whose entire church denomination was rejecting biblical teaching. The church had a choice: deny biblical teaching, or follow biblical teaching and separate from the denomination. They chose the right thing and left the denomination. Many churches have been forced to do this and it is a very difficult thing to do.

But the result was wonderful. That church had been declining under liberalism to the point that they had just 12 people attending worship services; a fraction of the participation they had in the past.

But as they did the right thing, God “miraculously” brought them a new pastor through a “chance” connection. It was a former pastor who was working nearby as a farmhand.

He accepted their request to lead the church and it began to grow and thrive. When he left 30 years later his son-in-law became pastor and the church continued to thrive!

“This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.” (Titus 1:13 ESV)

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2 ESV)

03. Disagree without being disagreeable.

This is a truism, but it is very important: we must do our best to disagree without being abusive and harsh.

One of our favorite family verses to help keep peace as our boys were growing up was; “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” (Ephesians 4:29 NLT)

Another verse reminds us that “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1 ESV)

The way to “win” a conflict is not to “sin” in a conflict. Sin happens when we:

• Use “foul or abusive language”

• Raise our voices in anger

• Use words to demean instead of encourage

• Attack persons rather than attacking the issue

• Put winning or getting our own way above finding the best solution

04. Endure for the sake of Christ.

Remember that our end goal is not to please people, no matter who they are, but always to please our Lord.

Some people are never going to “like” us, no matter what we do. In fact, the more godly and biblical we behave, the more some will dislike us! They’re simply impossible to please. Remember that the Perfect One (Jesus) was ridiculed and tortured to death.

In Galatians 1:10 Paul wrote this powerful challenge: “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (ESV)

True Christ-followers live only to please Christ. They endure any conflict, ridicule, criticism, rejection, ostracism, and even persecution when clear issues of faithfulness and integrity are at stake.

Don’t be a coward. Instead, stand for truth and endure church conflict for the sake of Christ and in a Christ-like way.

True Christ-followers live only to please Christ.”