In a post by PJ, he noted different pastors’ definition of what a church is.
Mark Dever
The church is that collection of people who are hearing the Word of God, responding to it with their lives, and who have obeyed Jesus’ specific commands to be baptized and proclaim his death in the Lord’s Supper.
PJ
The church is a collection of people committed to the Lord Jesus and his gospel, committed to loving one another in full accountability including church discipline, and working together to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Mark Driscoll
The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the great commandment and the great commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy.
Jeff Vanderstelt
The church is the gospel people who believe the gospel, who are a formed community around the gospel, and who demonstrate the gospel in everyday ways of life so that the world might know that the Father sent the Son.
