“We can illustrate the difference between a church and a collection of Christians in this way: I can easily imagine a summer camp counselor watching a seventeen-year-old boy undergo conversion over the course of a summer, which is followed by a seemingly credible profession of faith. Should the camp counselor then baptize the body? He can, if he can baptize him according to the authority of the charter Jesus handed the apostles in Matthew 16. Has this counselor, together with several others, determined to continue indefinitely in overseeing the boy and one another; to regularly proclaim the Lord’s death through the Lord’s Supper; to discipline the boy or one another should they revert to following in the ways of the world; to teach one another everything that Christ has commanded; to guard, protect, and proclaim the gospel; and to make more disciples among not just other teenagers but among all comers who do not yet know Christ? If so, yes, he can baptize that boy on behalf of the church. If that counselor cannot commit to all this, that is, if there is no church to speak of, he does not have the authority to baptize the boy. The camp counselor’s desire to protect the gospel in the boy’s life and in the eyes of the broader public should impel him to send the boy to a church saying, ‘Join it! Be guarded. Be watched over. Be cared for. Be protected. Be loved.'”
Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love, 205
By and For the gospel 