Church History

The Church

The community of all who belong to Christ.

The church is both universal (all believers everywhere and in every age) and local (a specific gathered congregation).

It exists for worship, formation, care and mission — and Scripture has no category for a Christian life lived apart from it.

Key verses

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
1 Corinthians 12:27

Where this came from

We're not experts — these are the sources we used while researching this page. Read them yourself, keep digging, and hold us to them.

[1]Blue Letter Bible — concordance and cross-reference tools
Every verse chain on a topic page was checked in context here.
[2]Bible Project — theological theme studies
Biblical-theology framing for themes such as covenant, image of God, exile and sabbath.
[3]Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (OUP)
Definitions of technical terms used on these pages.