The Greek word that is translated "church" over 100 times in the New Testament is ekklesia. In the Greek secular world this word was used of any public assembly of free citizens who gather in order to determine their own and their children's communal, political and spiritual well-being. Its use in the Bible, however, is very different. It was used in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (the Septuagint) to translate the Hebrew word qahal, the "congregation" of those whom God had called into a covenant relationship with himself. In the New Testament it refers to those whom God has called out of humanity (the word literally means "called out of") into a personal relationship with himself, to be his own people. "He gave himself to rescue us from everything that is evil and to make our heart pure. He wanted us to be his own people and to be eager to do right" (Titus 2:14). Having given us the Holy Spirit he now calls us to live for him, not just as individuals, but as a community, a family.

The word "church" in the New Testament is usually used of all the Christians in a certain place. Thus Paul can write to "the church of God in Corinth" (1 Corinthians 1:2) or to "the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 1:1) or even "the church that meets at their house" (Romans 16:5). It can be used in the plural: "The churches in the province of Asia" (1 Corinthians 16:19). It can be used of all Christians everywhere. Thus Paul speaks of Christ as "head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18). Generally speaking it could be said that where you find Christians gathered together, those who "call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:2), there you have the church.

How many people does it take to make a church? A relevant saying of Jesus is his statement that "where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20). If Jesus is present with his people, though only two or three be gathered, surely there is the church. Ignatius, the first century bishop of Antioch, declared, "Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the universal church." The African Church Father, Tertullian, declared a century later, "Where three are, the church is." The fourteenth century Bohemian Reformer, John Huss, also declared, in relation this saying of Jesus: "From this it follows that two righteous persons congregated together in Christ's name constitute, with Christ as the head, a particular holy church." Pope Paul VI referred to Matthew 18:20 in a speech before the Delegation of Ecumenical Patriarchs (1972) , speaking of the ecclesia [church] as a "gathering in which we are joined with you...gathered together in the name of Christ, and as a result of having him, Christ, our Lord himself, in our midst." If Jesus declares himself present with his people, wherever they meet, or however small the numbers, I don't see that you can deny that there is the church as it is defined in the New Testament.

This view implies that the authenticity of the church has nothing to do with its particular structure or organisation. Some in the episcopal tradition have declared that you can't have a true church unless you have bishops. Some in the Free Church tradition said that you can't have a true church if you do have bishops. Such exclusive views are no longer credible today and can't be proved from the New Testament.

Another common view is that you can't have a true Church without the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Now I certainly believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are important ceremonies for Christians. Jesus commanded them. From the very outset Christian congregations performed baptisms and celebrated Holy Communion and there does not seem to have been any initial period in church history without them. I believe that those who don't practise them are missing something. However, I have a problem with denying the word "Church" to them on those grounds alone. Are we to say that the Salvation Army is not part of God's true church because for over 100 years they have tended to spiritualise the meaning of the sacraments? Lesslie Newbigin, in The Household of God, says:

If we would answer the question 'Where is the Church?' we must ask 'Where is the Holy Spirit recognisably present with power?'

Who can deny the presence of the Spirit in the Salvation Army who, with their devotion to the needy and underprivileged in society, have put many of us to shame.