Taken from a devotional in 2026.
Did Jesus come preaching “repent, for the church is at hand?” No, he came preaching repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17). In today’s Christianity, we rarely get this right. We discuss church more than making-disciples and sometimes even more than the Kingdom of Heaven.
Theologian, G. E. Ladd (the guy who coined the phrase “the already/but not yet”) summarizes some key points that help us understand the 4 Fields of the Kingdom and its relationship to the Church. These are foundational for us as the Church of Jesus Christ. He states:
- The Church is Not the Kingdom
- The Kingdom creates the Church
- The Church witnesses to the Kingdom
- The Church is an instrument of the Kingdom
- The Church is the custodian of the Kingdom
We saw last week that the Church is not established until Acts 1 and the very first gathering was Acts 2:36-47. This was well after Jesus’ ministry, message, and mission in the synoptic gospels. But, if we confuse the Church with the Kingdom it actually has daily consequences for us as Jesus’s community. With Jesus, he has inaugurated his Kingdom. The rule of God is actively present in the ministry of Jesus which challenges people to respond. The Church does not build the Kingdom but disciples are sent out to proclaim and witness to the Kingdom. As the instrument, the Church does wondrous works through disciples as they are empowered by the Lord himself, enabling her to live according to the Kingdom ethic in the world. Once we get the Kingdom and the King front and center, we can then discuss Church as catching up to the Kingdom. Helpfully, we can think of the Kingdom as the source, which flows to the Function, Format, and Form of the Church.
Function
The function of the New Testament Church is timeless and fixed. The very basics of the Church was reviewed last week (the Church Circle). These were things like repent and believe, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, elders, teaching, and making disciples. But another way to think of it is with a simple triangle. The church should Worship God [Upward Activity], have Wisdom [Inward Activity], and Witness to the world [Outward Activity].
Modern church life often looks like a gathering of isolated individuals: people attend services but aren’t known, carry no one else’s burdens, and aren’t sent out together. The New Testament pictures a covenant family instead. Believers devote themselves to teaching, fellowship, meals, and prayer (Acts 2:36–47). They meet regularly to stir one another up to love and good works (Heb 10:24–25), and they bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2). Covenant community is where the Triangle is actually lived: we worship together, grow together, and go out together.
Format
When Church gatherings are getting established, many practitioners make the mistake at stopping the Discovery Bible Study (DBS) format and replacing it we a traditional sermon-and-worship services. This is not inherently bad but it often kills discipleship multiplication. So instead, we like to keep the 3/3rds structure for the Church format throughout the life of the disciple community. We don’t change the format, we simply expand the function. We learn to add all the practices of the Church Circle from Acts 2 over time.
Form
The New Testament’s silence on its forms is deliberate. Scripture is intentionally obscure as to the forms of the church to prevent carbon copies and rigid institutions throughout the ages.
It does prescribes functions such as baptism, the Lord’s Supper, elders, teaching, and making disciples, but not the building, the schedule, the style, etc. Differing forms prevents carbon copies and keeps any single form from being treated as sacred. Since no church form is the Kingdom, no form can be absolutized. That gives the theological basis for the New Testament’s openness about forms and allows different cultures and ethnic groups at different historical moments to keep King Jesus at the center and not prioritize anything else.
The Church is the Kingdom Community and its function should be fixed, format simple, and the form free.
