Getting back to Matthew’s gospel, there’s a very important verse on which we are sometimes confused:

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16.18, ESV)

The “rock” that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God (Matthew 16.16), is where Jesus will build his church, and there are two things in this verse we often get mixed up:

“I will build my church.”

• We build churches (sometimes called “church planting”) and expect the church to make disciples in some magical way.
• Jesus said, “You make disciples” (Matthew 28.18 – 20), and “I will build my church.”

“The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

• We think the church is huddled up like a fortress while being assaulted by hell.
• It’s the other way around: the church is successfully assaulting the gates of hell.

But that would require the church to be “out there” – not confined to a building. For example, the gates of Jericho did NOT prevail against the assault of the “church in the wilderness.” God’s called-out group of people did not stay huddled up in the wilderness. They charged into the promised land.

The church, filled with trained disciples, is supposed to look like this:

They don’t get in each other’s way. Each one knows his job and does it. Undaunted and fearless, unswerving, unstoppable. (Joel 2.8, MSG)

He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. (Ephesians 4.11 – 13, MSG)