1. The Church is not a building:
The Church is more than just a building where people meet to worship and pray to God, which the authorities can also close down because of certain irregularities.
Although the Bible does not directly say « the Church is not a building, » the concept that the Church is a community of believers and not a physical location is implied in several passages.
For example, believers often met in homes (Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19).
2. The Ekklesia Church is the gathering or community of all believers who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord:
Matthew 18:20: « For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. »
1 Corinthians 1:2: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.”
3. The Church is the body of Christ:
1 Corinthians 12:27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
Ephesians 1:22-23: “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
4. The Church is me, since Jesus lives in me:
Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. »
5. The Church is a spiritual and universal reality that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries:
Ephesians 2:19-22: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Colossians 1:18: “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
The Church is defined by believers in Jesus Christ and their relationship with Him, not by physical structures.
Furthermore, if pastors are sincere disciples of Jesus, their calling is not to call people to keep them sitting in church buildings, their calling is rather to make disciples who will also make other disciples to enlarge the kingdom of God.
He told them:
« Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. »(Matthew 28:19-20)
Apostle Jean-Claude SINDAYIGAYA