Just a head's up...this post is mostly my wonderings. It is not full of theological facts and I do not have a ministry or theological education to back up anything.
I have always been taught that the "church" was not the building, but that it is really Jesus' followers. Even as a teenager I was told that the "church" was not a specific group of people but the church is everyone who believes in Jesus as Savior. I have always heard about the "Kingdom of God", but quite frankly, have never heard much about it. It is referred to in Scripture, but I always thought of the "Kingdom of God" and the "church" as the same - everyone who believes. In recent years I have heard these two terms in more specific context and begun to think of them in a different way.
The first was the "Kingdom". A kingdom always has a king. I have a friend who always refers to our Savior as King Jesus. He believes that it is a reminder of who Jesus is to us. If you are living in a kingdom, you always refer to your royals by their title as well as their name. A king is one who commands great respect and allegiance. In Thailand, the king's image is even revered. If you drop a coin and it rolls, you would never step on it to stop it for it bears the image of the king. To put your foot on the king's image would be unspeakably disrespectful. A king's wishes are obeyed. A good king is loved by his subjects. A king protects and is protected. A country who has a king represents the culture of that king. It reflects who he is and for what he stands. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven." This Scripture verse, found in what most people know as "The Lord's Prayer", commands that we pray for the Kingdom of God to come and God's will to be done on Earth and that it look like it does in Heaven. So the Kingdom of God is not something that we must wait for nor is it another name for Heaven.
"Church" has been explored and defined and devalued so much in my lifetime that I hesitate to even write about it's meaning or worth. I do know that the church is the Bride of Christ. I also know that it is referred to as the Body of Christ and in fact that rather than an "it", she is a "her". But who is the "Church"? I was expressing, as I had always been taught and believed, that the "Church" was the entire population of Believers who inhabit and have inhabited the earth. I always made sure to include my arms making a big circle indicating that I meant literally everyone and not just those in my locality when referring to her. Not long ago, the person with whom I was speaking said something that grabbed my attention. He said, "I really think of the Church as the local body and the entire world of Believers as the Kingdom.
This made sense to me. This caused me to start thinking about these two organisms in a different way.
The church's function is different to the Kingdom's function. The church is a specific local body of Believers who worship, fellowship and meet one another's needs. Each local congregation carries on the work of Jesus in this way. From the church we learn how to follow Jesus' teachings and get our training with the Sword and the knowledge of God. We lift one another up, we eat together, pray together, and serve together. We bandage one another's wounds and replace one another in battle. We rest together and we work together. We keep one another accountable and rescue one another from danger. We do life together.
The Kingdom is the joining together of the local churches to fight together for Kingdom purposes - to go to battle for our King. Together we defend, we uphold, and we bless one another for King Jesus' sake. We also join together to take enemy territory for our Kingdom's sake. The Kingdom is not limited to denomination, to country or to a certain people. The Kingdom is world-wide.
Viewing these God ordained labels in this way helps me to distinguish the importance of both. I'm sure I don't have it all figured out and probably never will, but when I think of them this way, I know that I am to serve in each and there is a job to be done. We would be missing opportunity if we only were loyal to either the church or to the Kingdom. In fact, without the church, there is no Kingdom - and without the Kingdom the church is dysfunctional.
My plea is that those of us who are called Christians by the world would join together as the local church and function together as the world-wide Kingdom of God.
