How Christ Builds His Church

Dr. John MacArthur at the opening session of the Shepherds’ Conference:

If you are caught up in the church growth mentality, trying every devise to increase numbers, I want to throw the gauntlet today and ask you to make a choice: If you want to build the church of the tares you’re on your own; but if you want to be part of Christ’s work of building the church, that is a different thing altogether.

There are many ways to build “The First Church of the Tares,” behind which Satan is the real power. It can be done very effectively, it can be big and enduring. The gnostics, the Roman Catholics, the liberals, and the cults have all done it—and they are still around. The Church of the Tares is actually bigger than the Church of the Wheat. And today, those calling themselves “evangelicals” are also doing it. There are churches all around the country where tares gather together and call themselves churches.

If a person believes that God is sovereign in salvation, that Christ will build His church, that the Father will draw everyone whom He has chosen, and that Christ will receive all whom the Father draws and will keep them and raise them on the last day—the question is, how does church growth theory fit into all of that?

Since the Lord has determined His church, bought His church, regenerated, justified, and sanctified His church—this is all a supernatural work.

As the Lord builds His church, by what means does He do it? And has He revealed the means to us? We need to get in line with the divine pattern.

Read the highlights of Dr MacArthur's presentation at The Shepherd's Conference and the see characteristics that mark the church that Christ builds.

Editor's note: Does your church reflect a Christ-built church or a commercially built church?