Jesus said He would build His Ekklesia (Matt 16:18). It doesn’t mean any of the characteristics that most anyone you know would naturally associate with a church. He didn’t say he would build a church building… He would have used the word ‘synagogue.’ He didn’t use any word to describe an institution or religious organization. He just said He would build His Ekklesia. And that’s simply a divinely assembled family that congregates together regularly to carry out the mission of our Heavenly Father – bringing Messiah’s Redemption to a broken world. Through that Ekklesia family, He brings all the attributes of His kingdom into the communities where we dwell. That’s why smaller is typically better. It takes time to develop relationships into a functional assembly of believers. They see one another as genuinely fitted family members of Christ’s body in a local congregation. They learn to love one another. As they discover how their unique giftings complement one another, they discover how to patiently mature together and share their burdens with one another. That’s what develops the characteristics that distinguishes, to the world of pagans around us, the sweet fragrance of agape love for one another. You don’t get that from a “church” that gets all its ques from an institution that must have strict conformity to a man-made system of by-laws. Yes, policies are necessary for any association of human beings… but when the local body of believers sees themselves as Messiah’s Ekklesia, devoted to following the Bible based heartbeat of the Chief Shepherd of their faith in Him alone, all the trappings of manmade “Christianity” become almost insignificant.