Many of us have gone to start churches or to be part of churches without due consideration of what this thing is all about. As a result, we accept whatever that is presented to us either by tradition or by those we assume know as we are not in a position to discern and assess correct definitions, operations and practices of church. Generally, it has become the culture of Christians to invest in something they do not even understand why it exists. We invest our lives, time and our resources without even checking if the church system we are part of is operating within the Biblically correct framework. We take the most important decision in life, that of giving our lives to Christ and then continue without checking if the “giving of our lives to Christ” is bearing any real fruit to Him and His kingdom. In fact at times we do not even care if the thing is correct as long as we can produce a successful church service on Sunday morning. We forget that Israel under Moses had “successful church services” in the form of the manifest presence of God (Pillar of Cloud and Fire) although God Himself had long judged that they would not enter the Promised Land or His purposes (Heb 3:7-19, Jude 1:5, Acts 7:39-43). The fact that God had judged them did not mean that He would not heal their diseases and provide manna for them; God did this faithfully until all of them died except for two men, Joshua and Caleb, whose hearts were set on the journey. This is what I call “sustaining presence of God” where God provides His miraculous power and manifest presence just as a way of waiting for the entire generation to die in order to raise a new generation that can possess His promises.

Definitions

Mathew 16:13-19

 Matthew 16:13-19

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  19  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” NIV

It was in Mathew 16 that Jesus revealed for the first time His intent of building an entity He called “church”. The word “church” was unpopular in the religious circles of the day. The word that was used to describe the gathering of a people for religious purposes was “synagogue”. Jesus Himself was familiar with synagogues, he went and attended synagogue meetings and sometimes even taught in synagogues, see Luke 4:16-21.

Luke 4:16-18

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

 NIV

“Synagogue” (sunagoge in Greek): an assemblage of persons. If you study about Synagogues in the Gospels and in the book of Acts, you will realise that it was basically an assembly of people (Jews) who came together to pray, worship and teach one another on the Word of God. Since the synagogue was a Jewish religious assembly, their Bible would have been the Old Testament (the Law and the Prophets). For example, in Luke 4:17, Jesus was given the scroll of prophet Isaiah.

It is important to unveil the definition of “synagogue” simply because although Jesus was familiar with synagogue operations, He did not say “I will build my synagogue”. On the contrary, He said “I will build my church (ekklesia)”. This straightaway tells us that the Lord was not simply establishing an assembly of people who would meet weekly only for religious purposes (as the Jews did within the synagogue system). The disturbing realisation is that the church has not only been run like a synagogue historically, it still operates as a synagogue even today. Church, just as ancient synagogues remains a system of bringing people together for religious purposes. In the synagogues, there was powerful evangelism taking place just as we see today (Matt 23:15). Now anybody reading this article will have to track through following articles carefully because if we read as far as this paragraph, then we will misinterpret and misrepresent what is being said.

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  NIV

 “Church” (ekklesia in Greek): The word ekklesia is made up of two words, “ek” which means “out” and “klesis” which means “a calling”. This word “ekklesia” was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens gathered to discuss the affairs of the state (Vine’s Dictionary). The word refers to the gathering of competent citizens of a city-state in order to decide issues regarding laws, office appointments, and public policy (Mounce’s Dictionary).

The ekklesia was therefore a political system of government and human development.

The important question here for us is, why did Jesus not say “I will build my synagogue”? Jesus took what was known to be a “secular” concept, entity and system and declared that He would build this same system to advance the kingdom of God. Ekklesia was a system of regulation and development of a city-state and so those who formed what was known as church needed to be people who were concerned with the affairs of humanity or with the human conditions of their city-state. Basically, ekklesia had a serious political-developmental role and function. When I say “political”, I do not mean “party politics”. The important question is, why are these realities not even traceable within the current identity, existence, doctrine and operations of the church? Who has defined church for us? Where did they get those definitions from?

In declaring the building of church, Jesus took what was known to be secular and unreligious; He bypassed the whole synagogue operation. This reveals the mind and the intent of God for the church.

Principles from Matt 16:13-19

• The revelation of church is preceded by a correct definition of Christ (Matt 16:13-17). The first question by Jesus was ‘who do men say that I am’. Correct definition of Christ basically means that we need to have correct revelation and doctrine in the church. Our sight of Christ produces understanding, doctrine and church operations. If we see Christ wrongly, like those who confused Him with past expressions of the Spirit (John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah) then we are not even going to see what church is all about.
• Church is built upon ‘this rock’, the foundation of revelation truth (Matt 16:18). And so the extent to which we have correct revelation truth is the extent to which we have a correct solid foundation upon which to build.
• Church is “built” (Matt 16:18). Jesus did say, “I will build my church”. This means that what I’ve just described in the paragraphs above needs to be built diligently over a long period of time. Our test of correct building is when we eventually produce a mature people that God can use to administer and govern the affairs of humanity. We have to produce the ekklesia. The idea of building must therefore emphasise to us issues of (a) having design (a blueprint) for church that must be built, (b) mobilising necessary and relevant resources (tools from God) that will help us build, (c) engaging in a long term process of building (building takes time), (d) being much more deliberate in how we build church.
• The building of church is a governmental-warfare issue (Matt 16:18). There is “gates of hades” we have to overcome. “Gates” in the Bible always represent wisdom and government. Elders sat at the gates to discuss issues of their cities and to come up with wisdom for effective government (e.g. Prov 31:23). This is the meaning behind the concept of elders in the churches. Paul meant that elders were governors of church communities (1 Tim 3). Elders were governors and senators of human civilisations and the church has reduced them to conductors of church services and builders of church organisations. Building a church service and governing human lives in Christ are two different realities. The “gates of hades” therefore means that there is wisdom of darkness that can overcome us if we are not receiving a higher wisdom from God. When we build church, we are engaged in warfare.
• Church has a clear mandate to advance the kingdom of God (Matt 16:19). According to Matt 24:14, this mandate must be brought to completion before the end comes. If this is true, how is it that kingdom realities are so distant from church processes. Why is there lack of kingdom emphasis in the church? Why has the “vision of the pastor” taken over clearly stated vision of advancing the kingdom of God in the earth? Have we considered that Christ and apostles preached that which they called “the gospel of the kingdom of God”? Why are we hearing “a different” gospel in the church today? Why are we “sermonising” the saints instead of preaching doctrine that reveals kingdom realities to believers. Have we considered what the kingdom of God is all about?

There are several principles that can be extracted from the word “ekklesia” (the called out ones):

• To be part of church means that you have been “called out” (of the world) to participate in serious kingdom business. That “calling out” is not a monastic process, i.e. it does mean we have to distance ourselves from the world. That calling out is one based on identity, mentality, ideology and value system. If church is made up of people who are called out then why is it that believers still wonder if they are called or not? What is a calling and what are we called for? Clearly, what we can say for now is that “calling” is not limited to “pastors” but to all those who are part of the ekklesia of God.
• One can not be part of church if one is still locked up in worldliness, worldly philosophies, values and ideologies. There must be a “calling out” or a “moving out of the world” process.
• To be part of church means that we have to be motivated by an advance of the kingdom of God.
• To become a functional church (ekklesia) we need to be trained and equipped (instead of being sermonised), see Eph 4:11-13. The “ekklesia of God” will not be produced through “sermons” but through training and equipping for kingdom function. This training must produce a set of competences inside the church that in turn produce people who can interact and advance the cause of the kingdom of God in the spheres where God has placed them (namely: Business, Workplace, Communities etc.). We have to be trained to function within the broader scope of the kingdom (and not simply or only in a “local church”). Many of believers have become competent in handling the affairs of their local churches but are still incapable to advance the kingdom of God into their God-given spheres