This is the fourteenth session’s Power Point slide show from the ’Using Pauline Studies for Evangelism’ course taught at the Light Project, Chester.

1. St Paul’s Gate,
Rhodes, Greece
Paul’s Ecclesiology:
Exegeting Key Texts
The Light Project
Session 14
Clint Heacock

2. Learning Outcomes
1. To gain a better understanding of the
NT concept of the church.
2. To explore Paul’s understanding of
the relationship between the church
and evangelism.

3. Definitions
What does the term ‘ecclesiology’ refer to?
It can refer either to:
a) the study of the doctrines of the church, or
b) the study of the nature, purpose and
mission of the church itself.
• The Concise Dictionary of Theology defines
‘ecclesiology’ as: “That branch of theology
which systematically reflects on the origin,
nature, distinguishing characteristics, and
mission of the church” (Collins and Ferrugia, 71).

4. How would you define the word
‘church’?
• “The Greek word used by Paul and the
early Christians for the messianic
community of believers is ekklesia, a
term used in both political and
religious senses.”
(Pate, The End of the Age Has Come, 165).

5. • Politically: Refers to a group of people
gathered to conduct the affairs of the state
(Acts 19.32, 39). In classical Greek ekklesia
refers to a gathering of the citizens of a polis
(city).
• Religiously: The term is used both in the
Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of
the OT, and in Jewish intertestamental
writings to translate the Hebrew word qahal.
• Qahal refers to ‘the occurrence of
assembling’ and can have religious
significance attached to it.

6. Can you name some of the main biblical
images of the church used in the NT?
• The people of God (Heb.4.8-10; 1 Pet.
2.9-10)
• The body of Christ (1 Cor. 12.27; Eph.
4.11-12)
• The spouse of Christ (Eph. 5.25-27)
• The family and the household of God
(Eph. 2.19-22)
• The temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.
3.16; 6.19)

7. For Paul (and other NT writers), is each
local church only a component part of
the overall church?
Catholic
Church Pentecostal
Baptist
Church Church
The Church
Methodist Lutheran
Church Church
Anglican
Church

8. Each community of gathered believers in
a particular location, no matter how
small, represents the total community:
the church.

9. “We should note that the individual
congregation, or group of believers in
a specific place, is never regarded as
only a part or component of the whole
church. The church is not a sum or
composite of the individual local
groups. Instead, the whole is found in
each place.”
Erickson, Christian Theology, 1043.

10. NT Conception of the Church
1. Churches in the NT clearly have a local
sense—Gal. 1.2; 1 Thess. 1.1; Acts 13.1,
14.23, etc.
2. Churches met in people’s homes: Rom.
16.5; Col. 4.15
3. Sometimes a larger geographical sense is in
view: 1 Cor. 16.19
4. Each local church represents the total
community of the church: 1 Cor. 1.2, ‘the
church of God in Corinth.’

11. Historically, what are known as the ‘4
Functions of the Church’?
3. Worship
4. Edification
5. Evangelism
6. Social concern

12. Fellowship
Worship Evangelism
Edification Social
Instruction Concern
Focus upon:
•God Focus upon:
•Individual believer •Non-believers
•Other Christians

13. What is the relationship in Paul’s thought
between the church and evangelism?

14. • The claim being made is this: that for
Paul, if the church truly functioned as
it was intended to do so—as a
functioning and healthy organism—
then evangelism would more or less
take care of itself.
• Put in other terms: if believers in the
church were living, serving and
ministering in terms of their gifts and
passions, then church growth by
conversion would become much more
organic and natural.

15. What are some key Pauline passages
that develop his notion of how the
church should function and its
growth?
2. Eph. 1-2-3
3. Eph. 4.1-16
4. 1 Cor 12
5. 1 Cor 13
6. 1 Cor 14

16. In all of these passages, note the emphasis Paul
places upon:
• Church unity (Eph. 4.1ff; 1 Cor. 12)
• The variety of gifts given by the Spirit to the church
• One Spirit—and what is the purpose of giving the
gifts, both to those in leadership and in the
congregation? Mutual edification (1 Cor. 12.7; Eph.
4)
• The various parts of the body. What is the point of
creating, gifting and placing all the different gifts
within the one body?
• Love and spiritual gifts? Why place I Cor. 13
between 2 passages on ‘spiritual gifts and their
usage’? Why does Paul refer to this as ‘the more
excellent way’?
• The use of spiritual gifts and the edification of the
church (1 Cor. 14.12, 26)?

17. 1 Cor. 12: The Message

18. Can anybody in the church say: “I’m better
than YOU because my gifts are superior to
yours….”
OR, “You’re better than ME because your
gifts are superior to mine…”?

19. “For Paul the church, even in its universal
dimension, was not an institution but a
collection of redeemed sinners, called
saints, and bound together as mutual
recipients of the powerful grace of God.
According to Paul the discernible evidence
of God’s grace was the manifestation of the
different gifts of the Spirit as different, but
complementary, functions in the church.
The purpose of these gifts was not to provide a
means for ranking or comparing one
Christian to another; rather, the gifts were
given in their different forms for the
upbuilding of the church—local and
universal.”
Soards, The Apostle Paul, 197-198.